A simple blood test could one day provide data on our deaths. In a recent study, a team of European researchers explain how certain biomarkers in human blood have enabled them to predict how long a person will live.
They analyzed data on blood samples from 44 168 people between the ages of 18 and 109, of whom 5512 died over a period of nearly 17 years.
After looking at 226 biomarkers in the samples, the researchers identified 14 that could predict whether a person would die in the next 5 to 10 years.
To test the theory, they analyzed data from blood samples taken from 7603 Finns in 1997 and using the 14 biomarkers attempted to predict how many of them would die within 5 to 10 years after the year the samples were taken.
Their predictions were correct in almost 83% of cases - an accuracy they did not expect.
Much more work is needed to make the discovery work in practice, and scientists believe it could improve health care, helping doctors identify the most vulnerable patients before any treatment can be started.
