Simple £5 blood test could help prevent thousands of heart attacks, study says | Medical research

Research indicates that thousands of heart attacks and strokes can be prevented with the help of a simple blood test of 5 pounds.

Examination of the levels of troponin in patients can enable doctors to predict their danger in cardiovascular events much more precisely, according to a study funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and published in the American College of Heart Diseases.

Protein is found in myocardial cells and leaks in the blood when hearts are damaged. Traponin blood tests are already used in hospitals to diagnose heart attacks after their occurrence.

Research indicates that inexpensive tests can also be used to detect “silent” heart damage, which helps to predict the patient’s future risks to cardiovascular events.

Tests, which can be performed along with routine cholesterol tests in GP surgeries, can allow preventive treatment, such as statin, with the ability to avoid thousands of heart attacks and strokes.

“Troponin, even at the normal rate, is a strong indication of silent heart muscle damage,” said the lead author of the study, Anoph Shah, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the London College of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

“In this way, the test provides an additional layer of information that we can use to increase our time when people are predicted. We want to determine the largest possible number of people at risk, so that no one will miss the opportunity to obtain preventive treatment.”

Shah said that adding troponin to the current heart risk estimation can help discover patients at risk who will benefit from preventive treatment.

The study found that people with higher levels of troponin in their blood were more likely to develop a heart attack or stroke within 10 years. Modeling indicates that for people who are currently found that they are at a risk of current cardiovascular health assessments, tests will prevent one of the heart attack or stroke almost every 500 people.

The researchers analyzed the health data of more than 62,000 people across Europe and the United States.

Each person had their own troponin levels, as well as traditional risk factors such as age, blood pressure, history of diabetes, smoking and cholesterol levels. The participants were then tracked for a contract to see if they had a heart attack or stroke.

Current cardiovascular health reviews use an algorithm to predict the risk of a patient with a heart attack or stroke in the next ten years based on risk factors, including measured cholesterol levels using a blood test.

By adding the results of the troponin to these current risk factors, the algorithm predictions were four times more accurate than adding cholesterol results alone.

Decally, modeling has suggested that the troponin tests was especially effective in discovering the danger in people currently evaluated and found that they were at a medium danger to “cardiovascular issues.”

BHF said that the intermediary risk group can form doctors, because it is not considered low risk, but its risks are not high enough to justify preventive treatment.

The study found that adding troponin tests means that up to 8 % of the classified people, as intermediate risks have been changed to high risk. Providing preventive treatments, such as statin, to the recovered patients can prevent thousands of cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks or strokes.

Professor Brian Williams, chief scientific and medical official at BHF, said: “The developments in the prediction of the dangers have helped to build effective algorithms that can detect more than the risk of heart disease and strokes, but with about 100,000 hospital acceptance for heart auras in the United Kingdom every year, it is clear that there is still a lot of space to improve,” said Professor Brian Williams, BHF chief official in BHF.

“This new data indicates the addition of this blood test to the current risk prediction models that can help medical professionals identify more people who are at greater risk and provide advice and treatment to reduce the risk of future heart attack and strokes.”