Stool tests can be used to identify autism

Researchers have known for some time that people with autism have a less varied intestinal flora.

For the British The Guardian, Qi Su, who is a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, tells us that they investigated the area more deeply and performed tests on stool samples from 1,627 children with and without autism between the ages of one and thirteen.

And the results differed alarmingly, where the children with autism very well had a less varied gut flora.

Could mean earlier diagnosis

With the help of AI technology, it was then possible to identify the autistic children in up to 82 percent of the cases using the tests.

– It usually takes between three and four years to determine an autism diagnosis. Most children are diagnosed at the age of six, says Qi Su to The Guardian.

– Our research shows good results in children under four years of age, which could make it easier to make an earlier diagnosis.

“Can act as a support”

Johnny Ludvigsson is professor of pediatrics at Linköping University, and has himself led an international study that found a connection between disturbances in the intestinal flora during the child’s first year and diagnoses such as autism and ADHD.

He says the results from Hong Kong are interesting, but they don’t give the whole picture.

– You cannot make a diagnosis with the help of this instrument, but you can say that it will be another support, much like other lab samples can support that you have pneumonia or some other disease. But it is nothing absolute, he says when TV4 Nyheterna reaches him by phone.

– Autism does not have an exact diagnosis like you have with some diseases – either you have cancer or you don’t – but this is a sliding scale and this type of combination of factors can perhaps contribute to making the diagnosis more certain, but you can’t use it alone.