Researchers at the University of Toronto have discovered that analyzing blood flow in leg muscles may help detect heart disease earlier than current standard tests. This breakthrough could lead to earlier treatment and better outcomes for millions of people worldwide.
While medical imaging has improved in spotting heart problems like tissue scarring or stiffness, these tests often miss earlier warning signs that appear elsewhere in the body. Previous research suggests that poor blood flow regulation in leg muscles can show up before similar changes in the heart, potentially explaining early symptoms like fatigue or difficulty exercising.
A New Approach to Detecting Heart Failure
The study, published in Discover Medicine, focuses on a specific type of heart failure known as HFpEF (heart failure with preserved ejection fraction). HFpEF is a common condition that progresses quietly, often showing few symptoms until it becomes severe and difficult to treat.
“Our study highlights an important gap in how we detect HFpEF before the heart becomes permanently damaged,” said Professor Hai-Ling Margaret Cheng, a senior researcher from the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto.
“Our findings suggest that changes in blood flow regulation in leg muscles could serve as an earlier and more accessible warning sign of the disease.”
To test this idea, the research team used a specialized MRI scan that tracks how blood vessels respond to stress. They applied this technique in a preclinical model of diabetes-induced HFpEF, focusing on changes in blood flow in both the heart and the leg muscles.
Their results showed that in diabetic subjects, issues with blood flow regulation appeared in the legs months before similar problems were detected in the heart. This suggests that studying the leg muscles might allow doctors to catch HFpEF at an earlier stage than current heart-focused tests.
Potential for Early Diagnosis and Treatment
Dr. Sadi Loai, the lead researcher who completed his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at the University of Toronto, explained the significance of these findings:
“Our results show that by analyzing blood flow in the legs, we could detect heart problems much sooner than by looking only at the heart. This could change how we diagnose and treat this condition.”
Since HFpEF is the most common type of heart failure and is increasing in prevalence, finding a way to diagnose it earlier could have a major impact on patient care.
Next Steps
The next step for the researchers is to test this MRI method on human patients who have risk factors for HFpEF. If the results confirm what was seen in the preclinical study, this could lead to a major shift in how doctors screen for heart failure.
“Our ultimate goal is to make early diagnosis possible when the disease is still treatable,” said Professor Cheng. “We also hope this research will open new possibilities for treating HFpEF, a condition that is becoming more widespread.”
By identifying early changes in blood circulation outside the heart, this research could provide doctors with a new tool to catch heart disease in its early stages, improving treatment and quality of life for patients.
If you care about heart health, please read studies that vitamin K helps cut heart disease risk by a third, and a year of exercise reversed worrisome heart failure.
For more health information, please see recent studies about supplements that could help prevent heart disease, stroke, and results showing this food ingredient may strongly increase heart disease death risk.
The research findings can be found in Discover Medicine.
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