Rapid Blood Test For Heart Attacks Could Cut A&liphy
The number of patients who have been kept waiting in A&E for more than 12 hours in England has soared by 10,546 per cent in five years, figures show. It is thought more than two-thirds of people who go to A&E with chest pain have not had a heart attack.
At present, all of these patients undergo a blood test when they arrive at A&E and again three hours later which is designed to detect damage to the heart muscle. The test works by analysing biomarkers, including cardiac troponin. Those with undetectable levels of cardiac troponin are classified as low risk and are discharged from hospital.
However, thousands of patients fall into an intermediate risk group – up to 85% of all patients – and require an overnight stay and further blood tests.
Scientists from King’s College London have now developed a revolutionary new blood test for detecting a heart attack could speed up diagnosis and save the NHS millions of pounds every year.
The blood test, developed by a team from King’s College London and tested across Europe, is quicker than the standard test and can rapidly rule out a heart attack in more people. This
could reassure worried patients in Accident & Emergency departments, free up bed space and save hundreds of thousands of pounds per UK hospital every year.The new test looks for a biomarker – cardiac myosin-binding protein C (cMyC) – which is found to be even more sensitive at detecting damage to the heart muscle. Levels of the protein the blood increase more rapidly after a heart attack, and to a higher extent, than troponin.
The researchers carried out blood tests on almost 2,000 people admitted to hospitals in Switzerland, Italy and Spain with chest pain. It correctly excluded the possibility of myocardial infarction in 32 per cent of patients, or twice as many as the troponin test, which is the current NHS standard.
Dr Tom Kaier, one of the study’s lead authors, believes that by switching to cMyC, the NHS could potentially save millions of pounds, and free up valuable bed space: “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, improving their experience and freeing up valuable hospital beds in A&E departments and wards across the country.”
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.”
Dr Kaier’s hospital carries out around 7,800 troponin blood tests each year. By his calculations, switching to cMyC would save his hospital £800,000 through reduced admissions. Extrapolate that to other NHS hospitals and the savings could be millions of pounds, he says.
Prof Simon Ray, from the British Cardiovascular Society, said more research was needed before the new test could replace the troponin test.
“Unlike currently available blood tests which need to be repeated at least three hours after pain it looks as though a single test is enough to make a confident decision on whether a patient has or has not suffered a heart attack. Not only can it be done earlier after the onset of symptoms but it also seems to be better at discriminating between heart attacks and other causes of chest pains. This is very important.“
