21/01/2015

New Test More Successful At Diagnosing Female Heart Attack Patients

A new, more sensitive, blood test has been developed that could detect twice as many potential heart attacks in female patients.

Researchers at the Royal Infirmary of Scotland have developed a new test that looks for minute traces of a protein that signals if the heart muscle has been damaged. The result could be earlier detection of a potentially fatal heart attack.

Currently, the standard NHS test looks for higher levels of a protein called troponin, which doctors use to judge if a patient with chest pains could be suffering a heart attack. However, a normal result in this test could miss the chances of heart attack.

The British Heart Foundation funded the new research, which has been published in the British Medical Journal.

(MH/CD)

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