In the event of a terrorist anthrax attack, knowing quickly who has the disease is critical.Now doctors may be able to do just that, thanks to a new rapid way of diagnosing inhalational anthrax."We identified several clinical characteristics that will help physicians discriminate patients who may have inhalation anthrax from patients who have some run-of-the-mill respiratory infections like pneumonia or influenza,” said lead researcher Dr. Demetrios Kyriacou, an associate professor of medicine and preventive medicine from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.To develop the criteria, Kyriacou’s team looked at known cases of inhalational anthrax as far back as 1880. In all, they looked at 47 cases of inhalational anthrax, including 11 cases in connection with the still-unsolved anthrax attacks of 2001.
