New Testing Strategy Could Help Diagnose Heart Attacks in an Hour
Using
a highly sensitive blood test, emergency room doctors may someday be
able to rule in or rule out heart attack within an hour
Symptoms of heart attack account for about 10% of emergency room visits, and a new algorithm using highly sensitive blood tests may help emergency department doctors diagnose the condition in an hour, potentially speeding necessary treatment and easing overcrowding in the emergency department, a new study finds.
The test measures levels of troponin, a substance released in the blood indicating cell death and a heart attack. Older tests for troponin required that patients be repeatedly tested for as many as six to 12 hours, since circulating levels of the substance may not rise immediately. Using the newer, more sensitive test, however, researchers from University Hospital Basel in Switzerland were able to rule in or rule out a heart attack in 77% of patients within about an hour of their arriving at the emergency department with chest pain.
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