£5 blood test will save thousands of women: Highly sensitive screening detects protein released when heart muscle is damaged
- - Test can detect troponin that is released when heart muscle is damaged
- - After an attack women seem to have lower troponin levels than men, which can cause
them to be under-diagnosed using current tests - - Trials show it picks up twice as many heart attacks as standard scans
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The simple test for heart attacks could save the lives of thousands of women every year
A simple test for heart attacks could save the lives of thousands of women every year.
UK scientists have developed the test because up to half of heart attacks in women are currently too difficult to detect.
This means victims miss out on vital treatment that can prevent a second, potentially fatal cardiac arrest.
The highly sensitive new blood test spots small increases in a protein called troponin that is released when heart muscle is damaged.
Early trials show it picks up almost twice as many heart attacks as standard scans and tests.
Once a problem has been spotted, patients can be referred for urgent surgery – such as widening arteries using stents – or given blood-thinning drugs to prevent clots.
The Edinburgh University creators of the test, which costs just £5, hope it will be in use in casualty departments by Christmas.
Heart attacks are harder to diagnose in women because they are less likely to go to A&E and are prone to less obvious symptoms such as back ache and abdominal discomfort, rather than chest pain.
They also tend to have milder attacks than men and electrocardiographs and standard tests fail to spot them.
Nicholas Mills, a cardiologist who developed the test, said: ‘It’s pretty simple, pretty cheap and has huge potential to improve the way we diagnose heart attacks.
'The advantage of this new test is that it can pick up very, very small concentrations of this heart muscle protein and that allows you to make the diagnosis of a heart attack much quicker.
‘Thousands of patients come to hospital with chest pain every year and doctors use standard tests – ECGs, blood tests – to try to rule in or rule out a heart attack.
‘Our current blood tests are not as sensitive as they could be. We are realising we’ve potentially been underdiagnosing heart disease over the years in women.’
The blood test spots small increases in a protein called troponin that is released when heart muscle is damaged
Figures from the British Heart Foundation show that 31,000 women and 43,000 men die from heart attacks in the UK every year.
Women are far less likely to suffer from heart attacks below the age of 55 than men, although afterward the statistics start levelling out.
A study on the new test involving 1,126 patients, presented at the European Society of Cardiology conference in Amsterdam yesterday, showed that it diagnosed heart attacks in 23 per cent of cases, compared with the standard 12 per cent ratio.
Anoop Shah, of the University of Edinburgh, who helped develop the test, said: ‘Women after having a heart attack have worse survival rates compared to men. For many years the criteria for diagnosing heart attacks have been similar for men and women.
‘From the current study we have shown that with these new tests we can detect even the smallest injury to the heart. We are therefore now able to diagnose patients with heart attacks with more accuracy and this is particularly true for women.’
British Heart Foundation figures show 31,000 women die from heart attacks in the UK every year
The researchers have submitted the test to NICE, the rationing body that will decide whether it should be rolled out across the NHS. They are confident it will be approved because it is the same price as existing tests yet far more effective.
Peter Weissberg, of the British Heart Foundation, which funded the study, said: ‘These results suggest the test could save more women’s lives by identifying those at risk of a major heart attack.’
This week French researchers said women with atrial fibrillation – a common heart complaint – were half as likely to be prescribed vital medication.
They warned doctors were assuming that because women looked healthy – by wearing make-up and flattering clothes – they were less at risk than men.
The new test – called troponin-I hsTnI – is made by Abbott Diagnostics.
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