Heart attack can be calculated using formula

Accurate calculation of a heart attack

17/08/2012

If a patient is admitted to hospital with acute chest pain, dizziness and shortness of breath, doctors must quickly and reliably determine if it is a heart attack. However, due to lengthy examinations and complex laboratory diagnostics, patients usually have to be monitored for many hours until a clear diagnosis can be made. A research team from Basel has now succeeded in developing a mathematical formula that can be used to diagnose a heart attack within an hour.

Patients who are suspected of having a heart attack will have to wait a long time for diagnosis
If there is a suspicion of heart attack, the electrocardiogram (ECG) often decides whether there is a blockage of the coronary arteries. Because the results are not always clear, physicians also perform laboratory diagnostics. It is investigated whether troponin, a protein released by the dying heart muscle, can be detected. The result often takes up to eight hours. Affected persons must therefore be observed for hours.

Tobias Reichlin from the University of Basel and his team has now developed an algorithm that allows physicians to determine earlier if a patient has actually had a heart attack. The mathematical formula was tested in 872 people with heart attack typical symptoms such as chest pain. In 77 percent of the cases, the suspected diagnosis was confirmed within the first hour. The calculation requires a serial blood sample, which measures the blood levels of the cardiac protein troponin.

Blood clots in coronary arteries lead to heart attack
In a heart attack, circulatory disorders - usually caused by a blood clot in a constriction of the coronary arteries - occur, which lead to the death of parts of the heart muscle. The infarction was preceded by a so-called coronary heart disease.

Already 20 to 30 minutes after the blood flow has been interrupted, the cells begin to die in the heart muscle. In the period of three to six hours, an irreversible necrosis of the affected muscle tissue has developed. A heart attack can trigger both physical exertion and stressful situations. Statistically, most infarcts occur early in the morning due to morning blood pressure rises. (Ag)

Also read:
Blood type influences risk of heart attack
Women: In heart attack often abdominal pain
Stress in the job leads to a heart attack
Heart attack worse in the morning than in the evening
Diet soda increases heart attack risk
Lack of sleep favors stroke & heart attack
Heart attack patients often react too late