The Vall d'Hebron University Hospital and the biotechnological company GoodGut, which is part of the HIPRA group, are initiating a study to implement RAID-Dx in clinical practice which will be carried out in the outpatient clinics of the Digestive Service of the center itself, as well as in the Primary Care centers in the area of influence of Vall d'Hebron: the Primary Care Center (CAP) Horta, CAP Chafarinas and CAP Sant Andreu, all of them in Barcelona. The study will be led by Dr. Javier Santos, physician of the Digestive System Service of Vall d'Hebron Hospital, principal investigator of the research group in Physiology and Pathophysiology of the Digestive Tract of Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) and the CIBER of Liver and Digestive Diseases (CIBEREHD) and opinion leader of the Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), together with his team: Beatriz Lobo, Danila Guagnozzi, Carmen Alonso and Ronald Llerena. It will include around 300 patients with symptoms consistent with IBS.

RAID-Dx is the first non-invasive diagnostic test to positively diagnose IBS by determining the specific microbial signature of this pathology in feces. In addition, this instrument developed by GoodGut makes it possible to discriminate this syndrome from other inflammatory bowel diseases, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, which have similar symptomatology.

The use of the RAID-Dx diagnostic test in the primary care setting will reduce the time required for these patients to be diagnosed and obtain optimal treatment, which should significantly improve their quality of life. In addition, the use of RAID-Dx is expected to avoid at least 30% of current diagnostic procedures, as they only allow other diseases to be ruled out, and will accelerate healthcare referrals of these patients to specialty care, all of which will improve the efficient use of health system resources.

In this study, individuals previously diagnosed with IBS and presenting symptomatology at the time of inclusion in the study will be subjected to the RAID-Dx test to evaluate the clinical performance of the instrument. In addition, the impact on the patient's quality of life will be measured based on the improvement in the speed of diagnosis and access to treatment, as well as the savings it may represent.

Currently, Irritable Bowel Syndrome affects around 11% of the European population and is one of the 10 most difficult diseases to detect, with diagnosis taking between 1 and 5 years.

About Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a functional bowel disorder characterized by the presence of recurrent abdominal pain associated with alterations in the depositional rhythm, either in the form of constipation, diarrhea, or both. It has a high prevalence in developed countries; in Europe it is around 11%. Accurate diagnosis is key to be able to choose the best therapeutic guideline for patients, but unfortunately there is currently no test or examination to diagnose this syndrome. Currently, the diagnosis of IBS is based on the characteristic symptoms that have been synthesized in the Rome IV criteria, although this does not exempt the relevant examinations to establish the differential diagnosis with some organic pathologies that can manifest themselves in a similar way.