Decoding Autism: Vital parenting information from Eyewitness News

Little is known about autism and it's origins. But that may be changing. A new test is now available that may help shed some light into the disorder. Dr. Joe Matusic says this amazing advancement could help countless parents of autistic children obtain in-valuable information about their child's specific disorder.

There are many unknowns about autism. Statistics show 1 in 160 children have autism. But what exactly causes it? And what type of autism might an affected child, have? Those are questions that have puzzled doctors, however some of the mystery may be unfolding.

Dr. Joe Matusic, MD/Pediatrician
We are now discovering there are genes for certain genetic defects that cause certain molecular problems and enzyme problems that leads to the end result, which is autism.

And now researchers have made a major step forward in the effort to "decode" autism. A blood test. A simple blood test to decode genetic information, that is sent to a laboratory for tests... to begin an amazing process for researchers to study and identify sub-categories of autism. It's not a treatment.. not a cure... but a major advancement.

Dr. Joe Matusic, MD
If you know a subcategory, you can now start to lump the children together and start predicting things and see who responds to what. And start seeing what happens down the road.

It means a refinement of treatment for autistic children. Dr. Matusic offers this for how the information could be processed.

Dr. Joe Matusic, MD
When it comes to autism, it is an end result of some insult to their nervous system, that we don't know about. Well, let's imagine that there are 5,000 different things that cause autism. We're treating them all the same. It's like saying 'your child has a fever, let's throw an antibiotic at them'. What if it's arthritis, it's not going to do anything for it. So if we can categorize these kids and could say 'you have autism 1 or autism 2, we now have predictions. We can tell this medicine works better than that one. We can say what the course is going to be.

Dr. Matusic says if you suspect your child has autism, see your doctor, have the tests and evaluations performed to see if that is what's wrong. Then talk about this new blood test that offers details about categories of autism. He says this test being offered is so new, many physicians may not yet be aware it exists.

CMDX is the name of the company that offers this genetic test.

If you and your medical professional need more details, their web address is; cmdiagnostics.com. Again, Dr. Matusic stresses, this is not a treatment or cure for autism, but he says it is a start down the road of a huge difference in people's lives.