Marcella La Cioppa Thanks to a new blood test, doctors will be able to intervene more quickly and effectively, thus reducing the number of deaths related to heart attacks.
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Heart attacks claim 400 lives worldwide every day, making it the world’s number one killer disease, yet they are usually diagnosed when it is already too late.
Today, a new method discovered by researchers at John Hopkins University in Baltimore may ensure that a blood test will save countless lives from heart attacks.
What does this blood test involve?
This blood test could provide a medical indication of heart attacks just minutes before their occurrence. Quick and precise, the diagnostic device may allow doctors and first responders to swing into action against time.
The newly developed technology makes the detection very rapid and accurate that a person is experiencing either a heart attack or other less serious, nonsignificant conditions threatening life.
How would this blood test work? The scientists, in their Advanced Science report, utilize a laser-based technology analyzing blood for the presence of certain biomarkers in the blood that signal an ongoing heart attack.
Currently, if someone is suffering a heart attack, symptoms can be so general that it makes rapid diagnosis problematic. Also, current methods of detection depend upon specialized equipment, such as an electrocardiogram or even more specialized laboratory blood tests. This test is envisioned to work similarly to a quick finger-prick blood glucose test.
What are the preliminary results?
According to the researchers, it gives a result in five to seven minutes, considerably less than in the current conditions. The test the researchers conducted included a small chip with a special surface that enhances the detection of a signal during the blood analysis. With the help of such a microchip, one can reveal, in a few seconds, biomarkers of a heart attack even when they are present in very low concentrations.
