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Researchers have developed a standard blood test that can predict the risk of heart attacks within six months
Heart attacks are the most common cause of death across the world. Often high-risk people are not identified and hence, do not take preventative strategies. Now, researchers have developed a standard blood test which can predict heart attacks.
The study, conducted by researchers from Uppsala University, aimed to increase patients’ motivation to change their lifestyles. Through the blood test and a simple online tool, developed by the researchers, anyone can find out their risk of having a heart attack within six months, the university’s press statement explained.
“If you find out that you happen to have an increased risk of suffering a heart attack soon, perhaps you will feel more motivated to prevent it,” lead author Johan Sundström said in the statement.
According to the researchers, a major problem is that the risk factors, which previous studies have confirmed through five to ten years of follow-up, are only those that have been stable over time. However, the time just before a heart attack is very dynamic, they said in the statement.
For instance, heart attack risk doubles during the month after a divorce, and the risk of a fatal heart event is five times as high during the week after a cancer diagnosis, the statement elaborates. The findings were published in the journal Nature Cardiovascular Research.
In this study, the researchers hypothesized that many important biological processes are active during the months before a heart attack and that these could be identified using a simple blood test. In the statement, Sundström said this can help health services identify people who will suffer their first heart attack soon.
For the study, the researchers accessed blood samples of 169,053 individuals without prior cardiovascular disease in six European cohorts. Within six months, 420 of these people suffered their first heart attack. Their blood was compared to samples from 1,598 healthy members of the cohorts. Through this, they identified around 90 molecules that were associated with a risk of a first heart attack.
The researchers plan on further studying these molecules to better understand them and explore treatment options.
Researchers have been working on making the diagnosis of various health issues easier through blood tests. For instance, a study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry in October 2023, highlighted a blood test that can identify biomarkers associated with bipolar disorder. Another study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases in October 2023, found that a new blood test could make tuberculosis diagnosis in children easier and faster.
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