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Fan Chen

A faster, cheaper and non-invasive technology that can diagnose inflammatory bowel disease is expected to be made available to patients in 2027, Hong Kong scientists have said.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s medical faculty said on Wednesday that unlike typically invasive methods such as a colonoscopy, the new technology used stool samples to detect certain types of bacteria associated with different types of inflammatory bowel disease.
Doctors could extract DNA information from patients’ samples and analyse bacterial biomarkers linked to the condition, Professor Ng Siew-chien said.
The medical science academic added that a diagnosis could be obtained in about a week, while traditional methods required multiple invasive, complex examinations and could take years.
The new method uses “droplet digital PCR”, technology that works similarly to a polymerase chain reaction test, to detect the bacteria.
“In the past, it was just a normal PCR where you could only detect one virus,” Ng said.
“Right now, with just one test, we can actually do everything there, and [get] very rapid results in just a few days.”
Professor Francis Chan Ka-leung, director of the university’s Centre for Gut Microbiota Research, said the technology was already mature and could launch in Hong Kong in 2027.
Ng noted that while the traditional diagnostic approach could cost patients more than HK$65,000 (US$8,351), the new method “may only cost a few thousand Hong Kong dollars”.
Chan, meanwhile, said gastrointestinal diseases had become more prevalent both globally and in Hong Kong.
He explained there were two subtypes. The first, a functional one, was triggered by consuming rotten food, among other factors, and posed less cause for concern, he said.
But the second one, inflammatory bowel disease, required timely treatment or it risked triggering more serious complications such as colon cancer, Ng said.
“There is entirely no difference between the early stage symptoms of these two types of disease,” Chan said.

Patients with symptoms for either condition would typically undergo a colonoscopy to avoid mistakes, he added.
“However, this method keeps increasing the waiting time, ranging from 18 to 24 months,” Chan said. “For people who don’t need a colonoscopy, it is uncomfortable and expensive. But for those who actually need it, it wastes time.”
Eric Lam Wai-lun, who is among those who faced delays in getting diagnosed and treated, said he spent two years undergoing multiple colonoscopies and similar checks on his stomach, as well as blood tests, before he was confirmed to have perianal Crohn’s disease in 1996.
“I hadn’t had a full night of sleep in the 10 years of my illness, because I vomited every one or 1½ hours and had to go to the bathroom,” the 52-year-old said.
He was diagnosed with depression in 2009 when his condition worsened and required him to undergo surgical operations to remove his colon and rectum.
“Now with this method, you can directly and quickly get the diagnosis, and receive treatment faster to control the disease,” Lam said. “Patients don’t have to suffer what I went through before.”
Wendy Zhang Jingwan, assistant professor at the medicine and therapeutics department at CU Medicine, said the diagnostic tool could be used for tests on people from different regions, including Europe, Australia and America.
Zhang said the tool could be used to monitor a patient’s condition over the long term, noting the disease was a chronic illness.
“Because we have discovered that intestinal microorganisms are closely related to [inflammatory bowel disease], we hope to reduce intestinal inflammation in these patients by regulating the gut microbiota,” she added.


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Cheap, non-invasive tool that detects bowel disease coming in 2027: Hong Kong scientists

Patients currently have to undergo multiply colonoscopies to detect inflammable bowel disease, with such procedures costing about more than HK$65,000. Photo: Shutterstock

(From left) Professor Ng Siew-chien, Professor Francis Chan, patient Eric Lam, postdoctoral fellow Zheng Jiaying and Assistant Professor Wendy Zhang Jingwan. Photo: Fan Chen

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Hong Kong

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Experts say new method can detect bacteria associated with inflammatory bowel diseases in stool samples, and much cheaper than colonoscopy


Experts say new method can detect bacteria associated with inflammatory bowel diseases in stool samples, and much cheaper than colonoscopy.


Hong Kong science and technology

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Universities in Hong Kong