A £5 blood test pioneered at Edinburgh University which identifies whether people with chest pains are at risk of a heart attack could improve treatment at accident and emergency departments worldwide.
A global study of nearly 23,000 people found the test accurately ruled out the risk of a heart attack in almost half of all those arriving at hospital emergency departments with chest pains.
Results can be obtained in 20 minutes and updating international guidelines on using the test on arrival at hospital could save millions of patients from having further tests and cut costs, researchers said.
Chest pain is a common reason for attendance at A&E but fewer than one in five of those affected are having a heart attack.
In early studies, the check accurately predicted the risk of heart attack in more than 6,000 patients admitted to hospital in Scotland.
The test measures levels of the protein troponin, released by damaged heart cells, in the blood and the higher the level found the more likely it is the patient has had, or is likely to have, a heart attack.
It is currently administered to people with chest pain when they arrive at A&E in the UK but current guidelines place most patients in the high risk category, necessitating admission for observation and repeated troponin tests.
Now, researchers have pinpointed a threshold level of troponin in the blood, below which patients are unlikely to have had a heart attack and are at very low risk of experiencing one in the next 30 days.
Their latest research analysed almost 23,000 people at 19 hospitals in Europe, North America and Australasia, who received the test after arriving with chest pains.
Dr Andrew Chapman, a research fellow at Edinburgh University which led the study, said: "We believe the findings of this worldwide study will provide national and international guidelines committees with the evidence they need to recommend the use of troponin testing to rule out heart attacks much earlier in the emergency department.
"This has major potential to improve the safety and efficiency of healthcare delivery, at a time of increasing financial pressures on our National Health Service."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here