Blood Tests Detect Heart Attacks Quicker, Better

APReport ^ | August 25, 2009

[Steelfish]

Blood tests detect heart attacks quicker, better

More sensitive tests are 94 to 96 percent accurate, new studies show

LOS ANGELES - A new generation of blood tests can quickly and reliably show if a person is having a heart attack soon after chest pains start — a time when current tests are not definitive, two studies found.

The newer, sensitive tests give a much better way to tell who needs help fast. Each year, 15 million people in the United States and Europe go to emergency rooms with symptoms of a heart attack, but most are not truly suffering one.

Those having a heart attack need to have blocked arteries opened quickly to limit damage to the heart muscle from lack of blood.

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Doctors currently have two main ways of diagnosing a heart attack. They can use an electrocardiogram, or EKG, to measure the electrical activity of the heartbeat for abnormalities. But that test is not always conclusive.

Doctors also use blood tests to detect elevated levels of a heart muscle protein known as troponin — a sign of heart muscle injury. A drawback with the older troponin tests is they take longer to detect increased troponin levels and by that time, heart damage may have already occurred.

[Nervous Tick]

>> Those having a heart attack need to have blocked arteries opened quickly to limit damage to the heart muscle from lack of blood.

Better not root for Bambicare, then.

Emergency angioplasty - 4 month wait.
End of life counseling - available now in the ER lobby.

[jwparkerjr]

re: End of life counseling - available now in the ER lobby

See? There's exactly the problem with the public option in health care! A facility that had a bottom line to protect and nurture would have the End of Life Counseling available at a drive-thru window. People are lazy, and besides that who wants all those ‘too-old-to-cure’ people hanging around the ER lobby.