Blood Test For Hidden Heart Disease [STUDY]

A cheap blood test can now predict which apparently healthy person is at high risk of heart attack. Experts confirm that it could be better than just checking blood pressure and cholesterol to assess heart risk.

So far, it has only been tested on men, but the British Heart Foundation-funded researchers say it should work on women too. The test, known as troponin, looks for the protein that is released when the heart muscle is damaged.

Doctors have used the same blood test to help diagnose men and women who they suspect have heart attack. However, researchers from Edinburgh and Glasgow universities said it should be used to help patients avoid ever reaching this point.

In their study, Prof Nicholas Mills and colleagues noted that, men who had higher levels of troponin in their blood are more likely to have a heart attack or die of heart disease up to 15 years later. A troponin test costs the NHS between £5 and £20, according to BBC.

But putting some of these men who have high risk of heart disease on a preventive treatment, such as cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins, lowered their risk as well as their troponin levels. The 3,300 men that the study was conducted on had high cholesterol but no history of heart disease. Thus the scientists now plan to do more research involving women.

Prof David Newby, one of the authors of the research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology said that "Troponin is almost like a barometer of heart health. If it creeps up, that is bad and your risk of heart problems increases. If it goes down, that is good."

He added that it also appears to predict who benefits from statins and opens a door to a whole new way of testing. It could be used as an addition to measures like blood pressure readings and smoking status when building a picture of a person's heart risk, according to 4younews.

According to Prof Mills, Troponin testing will help doctors to identify apparently healthy individuals who have silent heart disease, so they can target preventive treatments for those who are likely to benefit most.

"The problem with heart disease is that it remains very difficult to detect the early signs in people without symptoms, so these findings may provide a way to help identify people at risk," Dr Tim Chico, a cardiologist from Sheffield University says.

Dr Tim added that, nevertheless, the best way to treat a heart disease is to prevent it in the first place, and this is why a healthy diet, not smoking, regular physical activity, and also maintaining a healthy weight and blood pressure, is so important.