The study investigated the biomarker CXM, which is formed during the healing of long bone fractures and is detected in the blood. Healthy subjects without fracture have low levels of CXM (median 563.4 pg/ml), while patients with early healing showed a CXM peak at 6 weeks of 1,092 pg/ml, which was significantly higher than patients with normal healing (630.8 pg/ml). The researchers found that CXM was positively correlated with other bone biomarkers such as P1NP, CTX and osteocalcin. The test has been successfully transferred from blood serum to a dried finger prick blood spot, allowing for easier testing. Median time to peak CXM was 25.5 days after injury. The study found no significant differences in CXM levels by age, sex, or bone type. The results suggest that the finger prick CXM biomarker could be used to quantitatively assess fracture healing in future clinical trials.