Faster, Safer Laboratory Score Developed to Diagnose Heart Attacks

Toronto: Researchers have developed a simple laboratory score which is safer and faster at diagnosing patients who visit the emergency department with heart attack symptoms. The findings suggest that the score can also identify patients at risk of subsequent heart issues after discharge. “We have developed a simple lab score that is superior to using cardiac troponin alone for the identification of patients at low and high risk for heart attack or death at emergency department presentation,” said co-author Peter Kavsak from the McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. “This lab score may reduce both the number of blood tests and the time spent in the emergency department for chest pain patients,” Andrew Worster, Professor at the varsity, said.

For the study, the team combined common laboratory blood tests available at several hospitals around the world to create a single laboratory score or clinical chemistry score, to diagnose a heart attack. These blood tests are part of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) list of essential in vitro diagnostic tests for health care facilities with clinical laboratories. (IANS)