In a new study from Nanjing Medical University, researchers found that a simple blood test help to non-invasively rule heart attack in or out in people with chest pain.
They identified telltale markers in the blood of heart attack patients that distinguished them from patients suffering chest pain with other causes.
The researchers hope that the results will lead to new diagnostic tests for heart attacks.
If a patient presents with chest pain at the hospital, doctors need to quickly determine if a heart attack is a culprit. Early treatment is important in limiting the damage that occurs.
At present, this may involve coronary angiography, where a catheter is placed into the blood vessels of the heart. While effective, angiography is invasive, and not something you would like to undergo if unnecessary.
Another test involves taking a blood sample to check for proteins that indicate damage to the heart muscle. However, these markers are sometimes unreliable and can be elevated by other conditions.
In the study, the team analyzed circulating metabolites in blood plasma samples from cardiac chest pain patients, including heart attack cases and other cardiac chest pain cases, to identify potential markers for heart attack diagnosis and early warning.
They collected blood samples from 146 patients who presented at the hospital with chest pain and 84 healthy volunteers.
Of the 146 chest pain patients, 85 were later confirmed to have suffered a heart attack and the remainder had chest pain from other causes.
The researchers found an array of metabolites that were present in different amounts, and the differences could successfully distinguish between the samples from heart attack patients, those with non-heart attack-related chest pain and the healthy volunteers.
The metabolites deoxyuridine, homoserine and methionine scored highly as potential diagnostic and risk markers of a heart attack.
In reality, a suspected heart attack patient will likely undergo various tests before a heart attack is confirmed, but expanding the available arsenal of reliable tests will be useful for doctors in narrowing things down quickly.
The researchers plan to conduct further research to assess why and how these biomarkers are involved in heart attacks.
If you care about heart attack, please read studies about these two things may help you avoid heart attacks and findings of this inexpensive drug combo may prevent stroke, heart attack, heart failure.
For more information about heart attack prevention and treatment, please see recent studies about people need to stop using aspirin to prevent first heart attack, stroke and results showing that this toothpaste may help prevent heart attack, stroke by detecting plaque.
The study is published in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine. One author of the study is Dr. Xiangqing Kong.
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