Doctors solving medical mysteries will find their jobs a bit easier with the establishment of the country’s first center dedicated to undiagnosed diseases.

Children’s Hospital of Fudan University’s Undiagnosed Diseases Program center is part of a network headed by the National Institutes of Health in the US that provides a forum for doctors to discuss complicated cases and exchange information. Top specialists from all departments of the hospital participate in the program’s regular group discussions as well as in long-distance exchanges with their counterparts at top children’s hospitals in the US.

“Unlike ordinary complex disease treatment centers, the program only receives patients who have failed to get a diagnosis at the country’s leading hospitals,” said hospital president Dr Huang Guoying, who added that sometimes doctors must experiment with different types of treatment before arriving at the right diagnosis.

UDP doctors were already helping dozens of patients with mysterious medical conditions before the center officially opened its doors yesterday, hospital officials said, adding that some cases were critical.

Eleven-year-old Shi Yiling almost died after suffering from acute respiratory failure, a condition doctors at a hospital in her hometown, Ningbo in Zhejiang Province, deemed “hopeless.”

On December 24, Shi was taken to hospital suffering from a cold and fever. Her condition quickly deteriorated and she was placed in the intensive care unit.

But on December 25, she was transferred to Children's Hospital of Fudan University.

"We tried different treatments, until she showed improvement after one particular therapy. She was finally diagnosed with microscopic polyangiitis, which is rarely seen in children," said the hospital's Dr Xu Hong. "She was released after treatment and is expected to stop taking medication in two years."

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