Scots scientists develop blood test that can rule out heart attacks in

There are around 18,000 heart attacks each year in the United Kingdom, but around one million people come to A&E with chest pains.

A new blood test is set to revolutionise diagnosing heart attacks and could halve the number of patients admitted to the NHS.

Using this new test, doctors could potentially double the number of low-risk patients able to be safely discharged from the emergency room, the researchers reported in the October. 8 issue of The Lancet. The test measures troponin, a protein released from the heart during a heart attack. “These findings could dramatically reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and provide substantial cost savings for healthcare providers”, affirmed study researchers.

The vast majority do not have a heart attack.

Very high levels of troponin in the blood plasma are a sign that the patient has nearly certainly had a heart attack.

Using the test in routine practice could save patients from spending many hours in the emergency department, say the authors, led by a team from the University of Edinburgh in the UK.

Dr Atul Anand, who co-authored the research at Edinburgh University and Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, said: “It can be a devastating blow to learn you’ve had a heart attack”. It was also reported that this test is performed twice -first when the patient is brought in after complaining of chest pain and three hours later. According to the American Heart Association, women most commonly experience chest pain or discomfort just like men, but they are more likely than men to experience other symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, and back or jaw pain. A small proportion of these people will be at risk of a heart attack, but knowing who will and who won’t have a heart attack has not been easy to predict, until now.

Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, which funded the research, added: “We want to ensure no heart attack is missed but we equally don’t want to see people face unnecessary tests and spend extended periods in hospital”. Importantly, the new test needs to be performed only once.

The results of this study are expected to inform national and global clinical guidelines on the early rule-out of heart attacks.