Blood test may indicate risk of heart attack

A soon-to-come blood test may help physicians find who is at risk of a probable heart attack, says a research.

These observations were made after a path breaking research led by Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI) - a collaborative program between Scripps Health and The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI).

The study has found that circulating endothelial cells (CEC) from heart attack patients were unusually large and deformed and often appeared with multiple nuclei. These observations suggest that CECs are promising biomarkers for the indications of acute ongoing arterial plaque rupture.

"The ability to diagnose an imminent heart attack has long been considered the holy grail of cardiovascular medicine," Dr. Eric Topol, the study's principal investigator and director of STSI has been quoted as saying.

"This has been a tremendous collaboration of two institutions on the research side, three health care systems in San Diego, and a life science industry leader, which has resulted in an important discovery that may help to change the future of cardiovascular medicine," Topol stated.

The research team conducted this study on 50 patients who were admitted at emergency rooms with heart attacks at four intensive care hospitals in San Diego. The team of researcher used different cell isolation platforms, including the Veridex CellSearch System, the researchers observed that CEC counts and the cell structural features were radically changed in the heart attack population when compared to the healthy control group.

"We are pleased to have collaborated on this important investigational study, said Mark Connelly, Ph.D. Director, Cellular Research, Veridex.

"CellSearch has proven to be a powerful tool for oncology research and the care of metastatic cancer patients. This study highlights the value of accurate rare cell capture and analysis in areas beyond oncology," he explained.

The study has been co-authored by physicians and scientists from Scripps Health; STSI; TSRI; Veridex, LLC (a Johnson and Johnson company); Palomar Health; and Sharp Health Care. National Institutes of Health had funded this study with a 2 million dollars grant.

"With some additional validation, the hope is to have this test developed for commercial use in next year or two, "Raghava Gollapudi, MD, principal investigator from Sharp HealthCare has been quoted as saying.

"This would be an ideal test to perform in an emergency room to determine if a patient is on the cusp of a heart attack or about to experience one in the next couple of weeks. Right now we can only test to detect if a patient is currently experiencing or has recently experienced a heart attack," he stated.

Science Translational Medicine has published the results of the study in its recent issue.

--With inputs from ANI