The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) www.nist.gov is developing new tests to determine medical conditions so effective medical treatment can begin sooner. One such test involves NIST’s prototype sensor capable of providing results on antimicrobial tests in less than an hour which is much faster than other conventional tests.
Delayed results from conventional tests can allow dangerous infections to progress before effective treatments can be found and provide a time window for bacterial to develop drug resistance.
The new NIST technique senses the mechanical motion of microbes and their response to antibiotics. This method may prove to be more useful in clinical settings because it collects electronic data cost-effectively. However, ultimately, the NIST sensor may be suitable for rapid Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (ASP in clinical settings and be used for drug development.
Recently, NIST has also developed another new tool referred to as Standard Reference Material www.nist.gov/scm which is capable of improving the common blood test needed to assess a person’s risk for heart disease. The blood test measures C-reactive protein (CRP) which is a marker for inflammation in the body.
While the precise relationship between slightly elevated CRP levels and cardiovascular disease is still being determined, research suggests that inflammation in arteries can lead to plaque buildup which can then lead to heart attacks and strokes. Some studies indicate that high-sensitivity CRP tests which detect minute amounts of the protein in blood may also be able to predict heart disease when cholesterol counts are normal.