CSIR to develop indigenous standards for medical diagnosis as West-based models may not be suitable for Indian population

Vijay Mohan 

Advertisement

Chandigarh, January 5

In a novel project, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is developing indigenous standards for medical diagnosis and treatment which would be more attuned to the Indian population than the Western standards that are being presently followed.

“Our allopathic system of medicine is based on the parameters devised by the West. The view of the scientific and medical fraternity is that the genetic profile, genealogy environment, living conditions, diet and level of physical activity of the population in the sub-continent are quite different from that in the West and hence, the medical parameters devised for the Western populace may not be ideal for Indian conditions,” Dr Sanjiv Khosla, Director Institute of Microbial Studies (IMTEC), one of the participating laboratories in the project, said.

Titled Phenome India-CSIR Health Knowledgebase (PI-CHeCK), the project is being undertaken by all 37 constituent laboratories of CSIR, and in the first phase will involve a sample base of 10,000 employees, pensioners and their family members. CSIR’s Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi, is the nodal laboratory for the project.

The broad aims list for the project include estimating the disease burden, identifying risk factors and development of risk prediction tools, establishing India specific normative values and enabling precision health.

“It is a five-year project to generate a database of Indian phenomes, which has been initiated recently,” Dr Khosla said. “It will be a longitudinal study where the same individuals shall be observed for 2-3 years by conducting a battery of physical and bio-chemical tests,” he added. CSIR’s pan-India presence enables it to have an employee base from all over the country, enabling sampling from different regions.

Scientists associated with the project say that for example the Western parameters that define blood pressure or sugar levels to be normal may not be correct for the population of another region due to a host of biological and environmental factors. When we look at the globe, geographically vast areas have a unique and diverse phenotype and the parameters for measuring or determining a disease could vary. Phenotype is defined as the set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genotype with the environment.

Out of proposed 10,000 sample base, 5000 will undergo deep phenotyping and 500 will be identified for very deep phenotyping. Besides physical measurements and routine examination, blood bio-chemistry, ECG, mircobiome, lung spirometry and oscillometry, skin testing, transient elastography and fibroscan are the tests that will be carried out.