(dailyRx)
Scientists have found a biomarker which has allowed them to preliminarily develop a blood test that may be able to diagnose a heart attack by detecting a protein released in the blood.
After a heart attack, a large protein specific to the heart called cardiac myosin binding protein-C (cMyBP-C) is released into the blood, which could be used to detect heart attacks.
Sakthivel Sadayappan, senior author and an assistant professor in the department of cell and molecular physiology from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine called the blood test “only the beginning,” and said the test could become the basis for a new test used in conjunction with other blood tests to diagnose heart attacks. He noted that additional studies will be needed to establish cMyBP-C as a true biomarker for heart attacks.
Up to 70 percent of patients who complain of chest pains are not having heart attacks. However, many of them are admitted to hospitals at considerable time and expense until a heart attack is ruled out.
An electrocardiogram can be used to diagnose major heart attacks, but not minor ones. Blood tests to detect proteins can be used to detect a heart attack, but most do not detect proteins specific to the heart. High protein levels, however, do not only detect heart attacks and could pick up more minor health problems such as a muscle injury.
Only one protein used in blood tests, called cardiac troponin-I, is specific to the heart. But this protein might now show up in the blood for up to six hours.
During the study, researchers evaluated blood samples from heart attack patients, and also rats that had experienced heart attacks. In both humans and rats, cMyBP-C was elevated significantly following heart attacks. The protein may be easily detectable in blood because of its high concentration in the blood and because of its large molecular size.
When a heart attack occurs, the coronary artery is blocked and heart muscle cells start dying from lack of blood flow and oxygen. As the cells die cMyPB-C breaks into fragments and is released into the blood.
The study was recently published in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology.
Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and in the rest of the world. Estimates point to almost one half of all middle aged men and one third of all middle aged women in the United States developing some form of CAD. The primary symptom of angina, commonly known as chest pain, occurs when the artery is almost completely blocked.
Plaques made up of cholesterol and fibrous tissue lodge in the walls of the arteries that supply blood to the heart. Slow growth of the plaques can cause chest pain as they restrict blood flow to the heart muscle, and complete closure or rupture of the plaque can cause a myocardial infarction, commonly known as a heart attack, with resulting disability or death. CAD is primarily a disease of diet and habits, with the greatest risk factors coming from smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes.