New Zealand doctors have developed a single blood test that can diagnose heart attacks in minutes instead of hours.
The bedside test measures a protein in people's blood that is released from damaged heart muscles when experiencing a heart attack.
It has an eight-minute turnaround time from the test to receiving results, compared to one to two hours previously for central laboratory tests.
Lead researcher Dr Martin Than from Christchurch Hospital said historically, bedside tests have lacked sufficient precision to be used instead of central lab tests.
He said this new generation of high-precision tests that can be used in the ED is an innovation that can be adopted across New Zealand and globally.
Christchurch Hospital will be the first in the world to implement the new test this month before it's rolled out to 10 hospital sites across the country from February 2023.
Developed by Kiwi doctors, the test measures a protein in blood that's released by damaged heart muscles. (Source: 1News)
Health Minister Andrew Little described the research as "groundbreaking".
"Clearly, this is good for patients – those who can go home instead of spending hours in hospital worrying they are having heart attacks, and those who actually are having heart attacks and get the treatment they need sooner.
"But it's also good for the health system because sending people home within an hour of arrival takes the pressure off the hospital and frees an ED bed up for someone else," Little said.
The iCare-Faster project was awarded $1.15 million from the Government's Health Research Council in 2019, but work was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Than has been working for a decade on finding better ways of diagnosing heart attacks.
His team won a prestigious global healthcare award in 2020 for reducing the median stay of cardiac patients in ED by three hours. It's estimated to have saved the health system $50 million to $70 million so far.
SHARE ME