A simple blood test costing around £5 could help doctors spot twice as many heart attacks in women, a study has claimed.
The British Heath Foundation (BHF), which funded the research, said the highly sensitive test could "save many more women's lives" by reducing the risk of them having future heart attacks.
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh looked at the effectiveness of a blood test to measure troponin, a protein released from the heart during a heart attack.
This has been mentioned on the Radio news. Hope all Health Authorities will offer this test in the future. Thanks for sharing bala as the more people who know about it, the greater the pressure to supply it will be.
Thank you for the link, Bala. I'm a 73 y/o woman who has chronic respiratory disease (MAC and bronchiectasis), but didn't consider myself a candidate for heart attack. Mid-December 2014 I started having odd pressure feeling just below mid clavicle, and I attributed to esophageal reflux discomfort. It came on and off two days, no other symptoms at all, and I ignored it. Then it went into my lower jaw and that was enough to finally get me to the E.R. (I'm a retired RN, and jaw pain suggested cardiac origin to me.)
Quick transit through EKGs, x-ray, blood tests, and I kept hoping was gastrointestinal. To wind this story up, the protocol in that ER included Troponin test among others. The first result was barely elevated, but the docs did a series every few hours and it did go up, though luckily for me wasn't too high! Was diagnosed with mild heart attack, and as I declined cardiac catherization was started on medical treatment.
The Troponin test isn't new, but it needs to be done, and as the article points out, women start out at a lower baseline level and if that is just thought to be normal, and no further levels obtained, a heart attack could easily be missed, particularly in women.
The interesting thing about Troponin is that they measured marathon and half marathon runners after the event and a significant percentage had above normal Troponin levels. No they had not had heart attacks per se but clearly the stress on their hearts was not without a damaging effect. Don't get me wrong I am a life long runner so I am not anti running but I do think this adds more weight to the argument that exercise is one of those health factors that benefits in moderation. It perhaps has a sweet spot in between couch potato and obsessive tri athlete that provides greatest protection
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