The discovery is expected to make it possible for solving a treatment issue faced by doctors while handling patients who develop rashes on a frequent basis after bone marrow transplantations with a simple blood test. The researchers noted that the biomarker would make it easier for identifying who is at greatest risk of dying of graft-versus-host disease, or GVHD.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Rashes are very common in patients after bone marrow transplants. They may signal the onset of acute GVHD. But until now, a skin biopsy was the only reliable way for doctors to determine whether the rash is caused by antibiotics commonly used to treat bone marrow transplant patients, or is instead GVHD of the skin, where the disease appears in about half of cases.

Because a firm diagnosis is not easy and the threat of GVHD is grave, many doctors who suspect a rash is due to GVHD prescribe systemic high-dose steroids to suppress GVHD, which further weaken a patient’s already compromised immune system.

The U-M scientists identified a key biomarker or signature protein of GVHD of the skin called elafin. Elafin levels can be measured in a blood test to identify which bone marrow transplant patients with skin rashes actually have GVHD.

It was remarked by James Ferrara, M.D., Ruth Heyn Endowed Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases and director of the bone marrow transplant program at U-M, and senior author of this study, that the test is believed to facilitate informed treatment.