A rapid blood test saves lives from the biggest killer
Researchers develop a safe and effective test to assess if a patient is having a heart attack when they arrive at the emergency room, based on cardiac enzymes.
No waiting
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of death worldwide
The test detects heart attacks better and faster than the traditional examination
Washington – US researchers said that a new blood test used to assess whether a patient is suffering from a heart attack when he arrives at the emergency room is safe, effective and rapid in detecting people with heart attacks as soon as possible.
This came according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Southwest Texas Medical Center in the United States, and published its results Monday in “Blood Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.”
The research team conducted their studies to discover the effectiveness and safety of the new, highly sensitive “troponin” test, which is used in emergency rooms with symptoms of a heart attack.
One of the most important cardiac enzymes is troponin, a family of proteins found in skeletal muscle fibers and the heart muscle, and causing these muscles to contract.
Normally, troponin is found in very small, undetectable amounts in the blood. When there is damage to heart muscle cells, troponin is released into the blood. The greater the damage, the higher the concentration in the blood.
The troponin test measures the level of a specific protein in the blood to help detect heart injury.
And recently, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a new, highly sensitive “troponin” test, which is already being used in Europe, and appears faster than the traditional “troponin” test, which takes about 3 hours for its results to appear.
A rapid blood test saves lives from the biggest killer
New highly sensitive troponin test
The research team monitored the effectiveness of the new test in a study in which 536 patients entered the emergency room with symptoms of a heart attack, including chest pain and shortness of breath, and compared it to the results of the traditional “troponin” test.
The researchers found that the new, highly sensitive troponin test is safe and effective in the emergency room, ruling out a heart attack in emergency room patients faster than a conventional test.
The new test ruled out 30% of patients having successful heart attacks right away, and another 25% within one hour of taking the test.
By three hours, the new test had ruled out a heart attack in 83.8% of patients, compared to 80.4% using the traditional test.
Lead researcher Dr Rebecca Vision said: “We detected all heart attacks using this new test in all study participants.
She added: “The new test also allowed us to identify how many more patients who had symptoms of a heart attack, as quickly as possible, than with the traditional test.
Vision expected that this procedure would allow many patients with chest pain to have an early diagnosis of a heart attack, as soon as possible.
According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of death worldwide, with more deaths than any other cause of death.
The organization stated that about 17.3 million people die from heart disease annually, which represents 30% of all deaths that occur in the world every year, and by 2030, it is expected that 23 million people will die from heart disease annually.
