In February, Lyon-based artificial intelligence company Ziwig announced that it had developed a test to facilitate the early detection of endometriosis. Four months later, a new clinical trial confirms its effectiveness.
If endometriosis affects one in ten French people, its diagnosis is still made 8-12 years after the first symptoms. At the beginning of the year, the Lyon-based artificial intelligence company Ziwig presented a “revolutionary” innovation at a press conference, a saliva test called Endotest, which can detect all forms of the disease “in a few days”, “even more complex ones”. “. On Friday, June 9, the new scientific paper was published after the preliminary final results of a clinical trial involving 200 patients presenting with painful symptoms of the disease. New England Journal of Medicine, establish an efficiency of more than 95%.
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A ray of hope
To achieve these results, this study was conducted among 200 women between the ages of 18 and 43 and recruited from five hospital departments and specialized centers in France. Another 800 women should be examined soon to confirm these data. “This interim evaluation already shows that the test correctly identifies 96% of endometriosis cases, with less than 5% false negatives.” Figaro Professor Horace Roman, a surgeon at Ifem Endo in Bordeaux, who participated in the clinical trial. According to the specialist, also quoted in the press release associated with this publication, it is “a revolution in the field of diagnostics with huge prospects for patients”.
And for good reason. In the past, to detect the disease, it was necessary to perform an MRI or a laparoscopy under general anesthesia (insertion of a camera through an incision at the level of the port). The saliva test developed here by Ziwig is non-invasive and above all much simpler. Patients collect their saliva at home using a self-sampling kit. Then the sample is mailed back to the laboratory, which confirms or invalidates the diagnosis of endometriosis in a few days.
In practice, the role of this test is to detect microRNAs (miRNAs), special molecules that circulate in variable amounts in most biological fluids (blood, urine, breast milk, tears, saliva, etc.). “Over the past few years, evidence has been accumulating in favor of their involvement in the pathophysiological mechanisms of endometriosis,” Ziwig said in a February press release. A direct link between the deregulation of certain miRNAs and the development of endometriotic lesions has been shown.”
Available by the end of the year in France.
Available by prescription, Endotest is currently sold in Switzerland (where it is reimbursed), the United Kingdom, Italy, Iceland and Saudi Arabia. It will soon be available in Hungary, Belgium, Luxembourg, Kuwait, Qatar and Israel. What about France? In its press release, startup Ziwig confirms that it is working closely with health authorities to make this test “available to healthcare professionals and patients by the end of 2023.”
Source: Le Figaro
