Catalunya researchers predict heart attacks three years in advance with blood tests
Wednesday, August 30, 2017 @ 5:36 PM
SCIENTISTS in Catalunya have found out how to predict a heart attack up to three years in advance from a simple blood test – a method which, if it becomes widespread, could save hundreds of thousands of lives every year.
According to research team leaders Professor Lina Badimon and Dr Teresa Padró, from the Catalán Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, both acute miocardiac heart attacks and chronic ischaemic heart failure can be predicted.
One of the problems of modern-day medicine is that it is hard to tell when a patient is likely to have a heart attack due to 'current markers being relatively insensitive' to detection.
But during their study, the team found microscopic particles circulating in the blood, which come from both living cells, dead cells and those in the process of dying off.
All cells in the body release particles into the bloodstream in small quantities, but the amount increases when certain pathologies are present at the early stages, including arterial thrombosis, or blood clots, and hereditary high cholesterol.
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