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| A rapid blood test could diagnose a heart attack within 15 minutes of a patient arriving at A&E, a major trial has found. The test, developed by British scientists, was twice as accurate as the existing one used by the NHS, according to the study |
●The cMyC test correctly
excluded a heart attack in 32% of patients ●It was developed by British
scientists and is twice as accurate as troponin test ●It could
mean thousands of patients are given the all-clear and sent home within quarter
of an hour of arriving at A&E
A rapid blood test could diagnose a heart attack
within 15 minutes of a patient arriving at A&E, a major trial has found. The test, developed by British scientists, was
twice as accurate as the existing one used by the UK National Health Service,
according to the study.
Crucially, it could mean thousands of patients
are given the all-clear and sent home within quarter of an hour of arriving at
A&E. Currently, patients complaining of chest pain have to wait at least
three hours, and many are kept in overnight for observation.
Not only would the test reassure worried patients
and their families, but it would ease pressure on hospitals, free up beds and
save the NHS millions a year. The British researchers, whose work is published
in the Circulation medical journal, hope it could be rolled out within five
years.
Researcher Dr Tom Kaier, a cardiologist at King’s
College London, said: ‘It is important to work out early who has had a heart
attack and who hasn’t. We see patients in hospital who have to stay for further
tests as a result of a mildly abnormal blood test – this is stressful and often
unnecessary.
‘Our
research shows that the new test has the potential to reassure many thousands
more patients with a single test.’ Some 188,000 people have heart attacks in
Britain each year. But more than a million a year arrive at hospitals
complaining of chest pains, the vast majority of which are not serious.
Dr Kaier estimates that at his own hospital, St
Thomas’s in central London, the test would save £800,000 a year in reduced
admissions and free up 2,500 beds for the neediest patients.
 |
Researcher Dr Tom Kaier
estimates that at his own hospital, St Thomas’s in central London, the test
would save £800,000 a year in reduced admissions and free up 2,500 beds for the
neediest patients
|
Doctors currently have to wait at least three
hours before they can diagnose a heart attack, and they have to repeat tests
for a period of at least six hours before an attack can be ruled out and a
patient discharged.
The heart attack blood test currently used by the
NHS – called a troponin test – is not definitive for most patients, meaning up
to 85 per cent require an ECG scan and often have to stay in for monitoring.
The new test, which looks for a protein called cardiac myosin-binding protein C
or cMyC, is quicker, more sensitive and better at detecting damage.
The research team carried out blood tests for
troponin and cMyC on nearly 2,000 people with chest pain at hospitals in
Switzerland, Italy and Spain. The cMyC test correctly excluded a heart attack
in 32% of patients – up to twice as many as troponin. At 15 per cent,
the heart attack detection rate was the same for both.
Professor Mike Marber, also of King’s College
London, said: ‘This research is the first of its kind for cMyC. We’ve shown
that this test is not only just as good as the current test for working out who
has had a heart attack, but it’s also much better at working out who hasn’t.’
Originally published on DAILY MAIL UK
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