New Biomarker for Cardiac Patients

A new test for ischemia modified albumin (IMA) is designed to detect acute cardiac conditions in patients with possible cardiac problems.

IMA is used to diagnose acute coronary syndromes (ACS), which include unstable angina and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in patients presenting to the emergency department with chest pain. Clinical studies have shown that IMA detects more than 90% of patients with ACS based on the results of their first blood draw when IMA was used in conjunction with current standards of care, an electrocardiogram (ECG) and troponin, a cardiac marker.

The test, called albumin cobalt binding (ACB), was developed by Ischemia Technologies (Denver, CO, USA). It detects IMA in a patient blood sample run on a chemistry analyzer. The company says the test provides additional diagnostic information to help doctors more quickly stratify patients with chest pain. The test has been granted a medical device license by the Health Canada Therapeutic Products Directorate.

"We're interested in this promising technology,” said Anatoly Langer, M.D., director of the Canadian Heart Research Center in Toronto, Canada. "There's a real clinical need for additional tools that can help us stratify risk in patients more quickly and accurately.”




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Ischemia Technologies