Patent ID: 6964850

Claim:
A method of providing an index that is indicative of the state of a subject, as to a biological condition characterized by inflammation, based on a sample from the subject, the method comprising: using amplification for measuring the amount of RNA or constituents from the sample of the subject, where a panel of constituents is selected so that measurement of the constituents enables evaluation of said biological condition and the measures of all constituents in the panel form a first profile data set, wherein the measures for each constituent are performed under measurement conditions that are substantially repeatable and the efficiencies of amplification for all constituents are substantially similar; and applying values from said first profile data set to an index function I=ΣC i M i P(i) where I is the index, M i is the value of the member i of the profile data set, C i is a constant, and P(i) is a power to which M i is raised, the sum being formed for all integral values of i up to the number of members in the data set, thereby providing a single-valued measure of the biological condition so as to produce art index pertinent to the biological condition of the subject.