Inaugural Lectures by Fellows/Associates

Highly Sensitive and Specifific Panel of Diagnostic Biomarkers for Difffferentiating Sarcoidosis from Tuberculosis Identifified using NMR-based Serum Metabolomics Approach

Sarcoidosis (SAR) is an uncommon granulomatous disease which shares the similar clinical and radiological features with tuberculosis (TB). Clinical symptoms common in TB are often manifested in sarcoidosis as well. Most of the SAR patients end up receiving anti tubercular therapy erroneously. The diagnosis of SAR poses a great challenge due to its relative rarity, lack of sensitive and specific diagnostic tests and its heterogeneous presentation. Often, SAR is diagnosed based on exclusion of TB. There is a need to identify non-invasive biomarker(s) for differentiating SAR from TB. In this direction, the serum metabolic profiles of SAR and TB patients and healthy subjects were measured using NMR spectroscopy and compared. A significant serum metabolic disparity between SAR and TB patients was observed and a panel of discriminatory metabolites were further tested for statistical significance as well as diagnostic potential. The various results of the study will be presented during the meeting.