'Lab' testing - could dogs smell ME/CFS?

merged thread
https://meassociation.org.uk/2021/0...e-carer-can-even-tell-when-im-about-to-faint/

 

This is a bit of an aside, but I wonder if dogs can detect whether or not someone is in PEM due to a tiny difference in their smell? They're such amazing animals that it wouldn't surprise me. And if they could, it's a potential biomarker.

Probably a nonsensical idea, but...

 

I reckon so.

My first dog would try to usher me upstairs for "our" nap. My second dog ID seemed to know too.

IRD less so, but then he was already 5 when he arrived and what with home working being a thing spends more time with my husband than with me.

The only thing is, they could be picking up on unconscious behaviour indicative of PEM as easily as a scent. Possibly both.

They can be very, very observant.

 

I guess to test these things, you need to use clothing from the person rather than have them present, so that you can be sure it's not another kind of cue. Not that anyone would ever fund such a study anyway, but it's still an interesting thought!

 

Forget dogs, they eat too much and take too long to train. Insects are so much more economical.

Cell: Ants detect cancer cells through volatile organic compounds, Baptiste Piqueret et al, 2022

open access: https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(22)00229-2

I can't help wondering what VOC patterns - which reflect metabolism - might show in ME.

 

Game on! Advantage back to the dogs: 100% accuracy. And such beautiful dogs!

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/health/dog’s-bowel-cancer-detection-rate-100

With video.

 

Not sure if this has been mentioned here, but some of these dogs might have a nose for Long-Covid (and a study on this topic has been funded in Germany) https://www.s4me.info/threads/prepr...mples-grandjean-et-al-2022.27620/#post-488184.

Move over AI, I only use Dog Classification.