“A new blood test for the painful uterine disorder endometriosis detected cases missed by ultrasound and MRI, according to results of a study to be presented at a medical meeting this week.

Endometriosis, in which cells similar to the lining of the uterus grow outside the uterus, affects about 1 in 10 women of reproductive age, causing pelvic pain, menstrual irregularities, dyspareunia, or pain associated with sexual intercourse, and gastrointestinal discomfort.

Diagnosis can take years, largely because imaging tests don’t detect it accurately, and the current gold standard diagnostic method involves laparoscopic surgery.

Studying 298 reproductive-age women who had surgery to look for endometriosis, including 177 with confirmed cases, researchers found the blood test accurately identified 80% of those cases and accurately ruled out the disease in 97.5% of individuals who did not have it.

The test developed by HerAnova Lifesciences also correctly identified 61.5% of cases that had been missed on imaging studies, according to a report of the study published in the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology.”

From Reuters.