New Markers for Early Detection of Heart Attack

A study of patients who presented to the emergency department with chest pain suggests that a blood test for monocyte-platelet aggregates can potentially detect heart attack in the critical early stages. These results were presented at the Scientific Meeting of the American Heart Association in New Orleans by researchers from the University of Massachusetts Medical School (USA).

The study involved 211 consecutive patients admitted to the emergency department. Of the 61 who were actually having a heart attack, more than half were not yet apparent yet were found to have increased levels of circulating monocyte-platelet aggregates. This was an indication of the readiness of platelets to participate in clotting. The researchers concluded that monocyte-platelet aggregates are an early marker of heart attack.

The test for monocyte-platelet complex (MPC) was developed by scientists at the University of Florida Research Foundation (USA). The patented test has been exclusively licensed to CompuCyte Corp. (Cambridge, MA, USA), which is developing a test for use on its OnCyte Diagnostic System that gives results within 20 minutes. Currently available blood tests that detect heart-muscle damage often require hours of waiting for damage to occur and are not always conclusive.

"Since the majority of heart attacks have equivocal electrocardiographic changes and current blood tests may not be positive until six hours after the heart attack began, a very-early heart attack test is urgently needed,” noted Mark I. Furman, M.D., lead investigator in the study.



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