Finding the Best Blood Biomarker for Heart Attacks
April 29, 2014 | Terry Sharrer
More than 915,000 Americans suffer heart attacks each year, but two and a-half-times that many are admitted to hospitals with indicating symptoms. Distinguishing the “haves’ from the “have nots” in this situation is critical, expensive, and hard to tell. The most commonly applied diagnostics are the cardiogram and cardiac troponin I biomarker, but both have limitations unless the symptoms are obvious. To screen marginal patients, researchers at Loyola University Medical School in Chicago have proposed a blood biomarker—cardiac myosin binding protein C—as an earlier diagnostic, since that protein is released into the blood stream within minutes of an even mild heart attack and rise in concentration over several hours. MORE
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