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The doctors can save lives in the acute myocardial infarction (MI) condition if they can diagnose the problem in shorter time, but the testing methods like ECG, 2-D Echo, and other diagnosis take longer time in emergency conditions. The team of researchers from Switzerland and Spain has invented a method to spot the heart attacks within one hour time.

The new method or algorithm is found to be effective in three out of four cases on the basis of their study trial involving over 1,000 participants. The algorithm will measure cardiac troponin T levels in the blood, which is a preferred biomarker for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (MI) or heart attack.

The high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T 1-hour algorithm could give the cardiologists or physicians report on the symptoms and readings of suspected heart attack patients faster and help save many lives as the doctors can start the treatment with immediate effect without wasting time.

“Introducing the high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T 1-hour algorithm into clinical practice would represent a profound change and it is therefore important to determine if it works in a large patient group,” said Tobias Reichlin from University Hospital Basel in Switzerland.

The research team members have enrolled 1,320 patients who visited the emergency department with suspected acute MI, and the doctors applied this high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T 1-hour algorithm to blood samples, where they found that 786 (60 percent) of patients did not have an acute MI (“rule-out”), 216 (16 percent) were “rule-in” and 318 (24 percent) were to be observed because results were not conclusive.

“This rapid strategy incorporating high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T baseline values and absolute changes after the first hour substantially accelerates the management of patients with suspected acute MI by allowing safe rule-out as well as accurate rule-in of acute MI in three out of four patients,” the authors said.

The detailed study report can be seen at CMAJ – Canadian Medical Association Journal. However, we cannot say this as the most appropriate or trusted method to diagnose the acute MI since much details and certified report is yet to come.

-kannamsai