“At present, it can take up to a year before a patient is diagnosed with SLE. This is because the symptoms are diffuse and are often mistaken for other diseases. However, with this blood-based test, it is possible to determine quickly whether someone has the disease or not”, says Christer Wingren, associate professor in Immunotechnology at CREATE Health, Lund University. The test can also determine how far the disease has progressed. There are three different variants of SLE, and all require different treatment. With current methods, it is often difficult to find out which variant a patient has, which makes it difficult for doctors to prescribe the right medication. A third advantage of the new technique is that it also makes it possible to predict when the disease will become active.
