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March 21st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda WEDNESDAY, March 21 (HealthDay News) — A new blood test may be
able to predict a heart attack before it actually happens, the test’s
developers claim.
Doctors traditionally rely on treadmill stress tests to predict heart
attacks, which can tell if there is a blockage in the coronary arteries
but not whether or when that blockage might rupture and cause a heart
attack.
Enter the new blood test.
Individuals with high levels of misshapen circulating endothelial cells
(CECs) coming from the lining of blood vessels may be at imminent risk for
having a heart attack, the researchers report.
“We never had a way to predict a heart attack, but we are good at
diagnosing it,” said study author Dr. Eric Topol, of Scripps Translational
Science Institute in San Diego. “This new test is the beginning of a very
important advance, and is filling a major unmet need.”
Topol has filed for a patent on the technology used to measure CECs,
along with the companies that are developing it. He said he hopes the test
will be available in the next 18 months.
The findings appear in the March 21 issue of the journal Science
Translational Medicine.
The study included 50 heart attack patients and 44 healthy volunteers.
Researchers used fluorescent images to show that CECs from heart attack
patients look much different those seen in healthy individuals. According
to the study, the levels of these blood cells seen in people at risk for
heart attack may be more than 400 percent higher than in healthy
people.
As to when the numbers of CECs start to rise to detectable levels, “the
outer window is a couple of weeks, and we think it is about one week on
average,” Topol said. “Once we have cells in the blood, the heart attack
is not going to occur in the next few minutes. We have at least a few
days.”
And therein lies the window of opportunity. “If we can prevent the
blood clot, we prevent the heart attack,” Topol said.
Topol noted that the test could be useful in emergency rooms, when
people are admitted with chest pains but traditional tests come back
normal.
However, two experts say it’s too soon to tell whether this test could
do better.
“This may be a novel biomarker for heart attack risk,” said Dr. Suzanne
Steinbaum, director of women and heart disease at Lenox Hill Hospital, in
New York City. But “the new test is not ready for prime time.”
Unless and until more studies confirm the test’s ability to predict
heart attack, she said, “prevention really comes down to managing risk
factors for heart attack.” This includes eating a healthy diet, making
sure blood pressure and cholesterol are where they should be, not smoking
and exercising regularly.
Dr. Barry Kaplan, vice chairman of cardiology at North Shore University
Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., and Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New
Hyde Park, N.Y, agreed that more study is needed to validate what role
this new test can have in predicting heart attack.
“It may have potential to be predictive, but we do not know when these
cells become abnormal in relation to when a heart attack occurs,” he said.
“All we have now is decreasing risks, particularly cigarette smoking and
cholesterol levels. This is the best way to decrease the probability of a
plaque rupture that will cause a heart attack.”
More information
Learn more about heart attack risks at the U.S. National Heart, Lung,
and Blood Institute.
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