The PANDA test at LEAKY GUT - a new, innovative and reproducible diagnostic method
Today, we would like to give the so-called "Leaky Gut" a diagnostic diagnostically and in terms of understanding on the track.
"Disease of 100 Faces"
Besides multiple sclerosis (the layman may describe it as "porous cable insulation of the body") - the proverbial disease with the "100 faces" - there is just ONE MORE disease with the proverbial "100 faces": the LEAKY GUT.
Development of a leaky gut
Endotoxins, i.e. residues from cell membranes of dead (intestinal) bacteria, are possibly responsible for the so-called "permeable intestine" and associated complaints. Endotoxin molecules can penetrate unhindered into the intercellular spaces of the intestine, where the direct "cell-to-cell contact" is broken, and from there they can pass directly into the blood vessels surrounding the intestine (i.e. penetrate into the microcirculation of the intestine).
Normally, these endotoxins are bound to a special, disarming molecule (LBP = lipopolysaccharide-binding protein) and transported by this to the liver. There they are literally "cut up" by the so-called liver phosphatases (enzymes), i.e. inactivated.
BUT, unfortunately, our platelets in the intestinal blood vessels can also bind these endotoxins. These then change the platelets in such a way that individual platelets aggregate with several platelets and thus become large clusters of platelets (platelet aggregates). In this way, the endotoxins can then spread throughout the body via the blood system - for example, also in the central nervous system or other locations.
This mechanism then gives rise to the proverbial Leaky Gut with its 100 faces....
In this blog post, however, we want to focus on the diagnosis of a leaky gut (rather than the clinical picture).
The PANDA Test
In addition to the already known diagnostic laboratory tests regarding the leaky gut syndrome such as
Zonulin test
Immunoglobulin A test in stool
Lactulose Mannitol Test
alpha-1-antitrypsin concentration in stool
and so on
... Professor Götz Nowak (pharmacologist and physician, University of Jena) was able to develop the PANDA test as the latest diagnostic option.
PANDA: platelets analysed number in different anticoagulants (literally: "platelet analysed frequency in different blood thinners")
For the first time, we now know a blood parameter that can be used both for diagnosis and in the course of treatment (success monitoring). And - this is of great importance - the test is reproducible and cost-effective.
In the PANDA test, the blood samples are not only diluted with EDTA as usual (so that the blood does not clump on the way to the practice-internal or external laboratory) but also with citrate or, above all, with heparin. Both platelet values (number) are then compared with each other.
You would think that blood samples would show the same platelet count in the lab machine regardless of their blood thinning substance of their environment.... But this is not the case with leaky gut syndrome; and that is the point:
This is because once the platelets are "loaded" with endotoxin molecules, the platelets are thereby changed in shape and show themselves in a spiky form. These "activated" spiky platelets hook together and combine much more easily to form large platelet groups (aggregates). As part of such aggregates, "activated platelets" can elude counting ("hide") in a laboratory instrument that systematically counts platelets. The number of platelets can therefore only be measured to a reduced extent.
Thus, the PANDA test measures the DIFFERENCE of platelet counts in heparin-diluted and "normal" EDTA-diluted blood.
Conclusion
The PANDA test is one of the most economical intestinal barrier test procedures with only two small blood samples, machine-counted and compared. This test takes place directly in the practice and costs CHF 45 (walk-in). A bargain in intestinal diagnostics!
Treatment of leaky gut
Leaky gut treatment is only one part of a serious gut cleanse.
We would be happy to inform you in our WISE MEDICINE centre about central starting points within an intestinal rehabilitation and give you valuable recommendations (therapy plan).