Novel Blood Test May Diagnose a Heart Attack Within Minutes

Researchers have developed a novel blood test that can diagnose a heart attack within minutes. The proof-of-concept study was published in Advance Science.

“Heart attacks require immediate medical intervention in order to improve patient outcomes, but while early diagnosis is critical, it can also be very challenging—and near impossible outside of a clinical setting,” said lead author Peng Zheng, an assistant research scientist at Johns Hopkins University via a press release. “We were able to invent a new technology that can quickly and accurately establish if someone is having a heart attack.”

Zheng along with colleague Ishan Barman develop diagnostic tools using biophotonics, which involves using lasers to detect biomarkers. In this study, the researchers utilized the technology to find the earliest signs in the blood that a person is suffering a heart attack. Despite the fact that over 800,000 people have heart attacks every year just in the United States, heart attacks remain one of the trickiest conditions to diagnose, as the researchers noted, with symptoms that vary widely and biological signals that can be subtle and hard to detect.

Patients suspected of having heart attacks typically are given a combination of tests to confirm the diagnosis— the process usually starts with electrocardiograms to measure the electrical activity of the heart, a procedure that takes approximately five minutes. Also, blood tests are used to detect the hallmarks of a heart attack, where lab work can take at least an hour and often has to be repeated.

This novel blood test provides results in five to seven minutes. Moreover, the test yields more accurate results and provides better affordability than current methods, the researchers say. The researchers also noted that though the test was developed for a clinical setting, it could be adapted as a hand-held tool that first responders could use in the field, or that people might even be able to use themselves at home in the future.

“We’re talking about speed, we’re talking about accuracy, and we’re talking of the ability to perform measurements outside of a hospital,” said Barman, a bioengineer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. “In the future we hope this could be made into a hand-held instrument like a Star Trek tricorder where you have a drop of blood and then, voilà, in a few seconds you have detection.”