• Heart disease. Cardiac Troponin (high sensitivity). Any cardiac troponin detected in blood is a signal of cardiac necrosis (death of heart cells).  It always means that heart disease is present.  50% of the population has detectible cardiac troponin – most do not know it because it is not routinely tested due to the very high cost of this blood test using traditional methods. 

There are many pathologies that can cause cardiac necrosis, and the exact pathology may not be apparent when cardiac troponin is detected.  Regardless of pathology, exercise is always indicated when cardiac troponin is detected.   This can be used as a great motivator – everybody knows of someone who dropped dead from sudden cardiac arrest; almost certainly, trace levels of cardiac troponin is detectable prior to sudden cardiac arrest. 

Since 50% of the population has detectible levels of cardiac troponin, this blood test will raise signals that will be concerning to a lot of people.  This will cause significant demand for clinical consultations.  Doctors are not equipped to treat these indications.  Accordingly, FormDrop will partner with leading medical schools to develop appropriate protocols for doctors to utilize in response to these signals.  These protocols will be biased toward lifestyle modifications that will be directed toward reducing the levels of circulating cardiac protocol so that this signal will  be a  powerful motivator for these interventions.

• Diabetes. HbA1c.  Vitamin B1.  FormDrop uses this information to motivate users to optimize the management of their diabetes and motivate users to make choices about their health to avoid onset of diabetes.  When users see this signal trending up toward diabetes, FormDrop will provide engaging edutainment designed to motivate lifestyle choices that will arrest the trend toward diabetes.  University of Essex and Warwick Medical School published that Vitamin B1 in plasma is up to 75% decreased in patients with diabetes, likely contributing to neuropathy, one of the earliest and most widespread adverse effects of diabetes. 

• Inflammation. Heart disease.  C-Reactive Protein (CRP, high sensitivity).  C-reactive protein is a signal of inflammation and a signal of heart disease.  It is useful as a signal of inflammation that may need antibiotic treatment and as a signal for heart disease that may indicate the need for lifestyle modifications.

• Breast Cancer. Vitamin D.  Vitamin D deficiency is implicated in many diseases.  University of California published their peer reviewed study demonstrating that breast cancer, the #3 cancer killer in America, survival rates are twice as high when Vitamin D levels are high at the time of diagnosis.  When FormDrop informs women of this study, they will want to be satisfied that their Vitamin D levels remain high.

• Colon Cancer. Vitamin B9.  Tufts University School of Medicine published that this second most deadly cancer killer risk is reduced by up to 25% when Vitamin B9 supplementation is Just Right – it explains that when Vitamin B9 levels are low, colon cancer risk is increased, and that when Vitamin B9 levels are high, colon cancer risk is also increased.  “Not too much”, “Not too little”, but what it describes as the Goldlocks phenomena; “Just Right” is when colon cancer risk is reduced by up to 25%.

• Anticoagulation. Native Prothrombin Antigen. Harvard Medical School published its study that demonstrates 85% reduction in adverse events associated with Coumadin therapy (high volume dangerous drug for anticoagulation) when monitored using Native Prothrombin Antigen instead of INR.  This makes anticoagulation therapy 6 times safer than any drug on the market today.

• Tuberculosis. The burden of tuberculosis weighs heavily upon humanity; nearly 2 billion people are infected with the tuberculosis bacteria; the burden is heaviest in India, followed closely by China, Indonesia and Pakistan.  Its toll of suffering, death and economic cost is almost inestimable.  There are few needs more pressing on humanity than the management and elimination of tuberculosis.

  The tuberculosis bacteria is a persistent infection; once infected, it is almost not possible to clear from a host body.  Most of these infections are in a latent state where the host body is able to hold the bacteria in check and sufficiently suppress its activity to protect the host body.  Sometimes the host body loses control; the bacteria is able to overwhelm the defenses of the host and multiply into an active state.  Once in the active state, the bacteria can, and many does, kill the host body.  Also, while in the active state, the host body can infect other bodies through aerosol transmission.

  Efforts to lower the burden of tuberculosis on humanity continue.  These efforts are multi-faceted and continually evolving.  New strategies are needed.  Many strategies can be enhanced through better diagnosis.  The currently widely available diagnostics are primarily qualitative in nature; they signal the presence of the tuberculosis bacteria, but not the degree of infection.  Making quantitative diagnostics that signal the degree of infection widely accessible to the burdened populations would significantly enhance efforts to lower the burden.  Treatments could be targeted and dosed to the diverse conditions of each burdened host body. 

  There is significant evidence that proteins (glutamine synthetase and superoxide dismutase) excreted by the tuberculosis bacteria circulate in human blood in proportion to the degree of infection.  Quantifying these has been elusive because there are also human versions of these proteins in blood, and these proteins circulate in blood at low abundance.   High specificity (to distinguish between human and tuberculin species), high sensitivity (to quantify low abundance species) and high throughput (for low cost behavior) detection is needed.  FormDrop’s novel mass spectrometry method is exactly this.  FormDrop holds the great promise of providing this missing piece to the efforts to reduce the tuberculosis burden.  With FormDrop accessible to the burdened population, this promise becomes closer to humanity’s reach.