Researchers at two Norwegian hospitals have discovered a revolutionary test in the fight against heart disease.

Proteins

Up to now, traditional blood tests have relied upon detecting the presence of a protein called Troponin – a marker diagnosing that the patient has an area of damaged heart muscle.

Trygve Brügger-Andersen – a doctoral research student at Stavanger University Hospital (SUS) – tells Dagbladet that the new test screens for the presence of BNP and PTX3 proteins.

Scientists have discovered that there is a clear connection between high levels of these proteins and the risk of patients with chest pains developing future heart problems.

Predictive

Researchers studied two groups of patients with chest pains over a two-year period – comprising 300 and 900 respectively.

“A high level of Troponin can indicate that the heart muscle has already sustained damage. The advantage of measuring BNP and PTX3 is that it’s now possible to show if something is wrong at a much earlier stage, hopefully before any harm has occurred,” Professor Dennis W.T. Nilsen, head of the research group, tells the paper.

Not exhaustive

However, according to Brügger-Andersen, the new test is meant to be a supplement, rather than a substitute for the Troponin-based test, and won’t replace traditional screening for the risk of heart attacks connected with smoking, high cholesterol, high blood-pressure, overweight, and diabetes.

“It’s also important to remember that our study was only based on patients admitted to hospital with chest pains, and in cases where we strongly suspected that they’d had a heart attack,” he says.

In addition the BNP/PTX3 test doesn’t apply to those without chest pains, or with other unstable heart conditions.

Further development

Meanwhile another blood test, involving Troponin T this time, has been developed by Torbjørn Omland – professor of heart medicine at the Akershus University Hospital – together with a group of American, Canadian, and other Norwegian researchers.

According to Omland, the new method is a development of the standard Troponin test, is much more sensitive, and has been used in Norwegian hospitals for the last six months.

“Whilst the standard Troponin test could only be carried out on patients that had already had a heart attack, the new one can (also) be used to screen patients with stable coronary artery disease before this has happened,” he tells The Foreigner.

The Norwegian Heart and Lung Patient Organisation (LHL) have been positive to both Omland’s and Brügger-Andersen’s findings, saying that they mean good news for patients.