Science
Heart attack algorithm improves accuracy of standard test
When researchers from the University of Edinburgh tested the algorithm on 20,761 people with potential heart attack, they found that it accurately ruled out a heart attack 99.8 per cent of the time.
The algorithm, called MI3, can also more accurately identify those who might benefit from further, more invasive, heart tests.
Quicker treatment
Professor Metin Avkiran, our Associate Medical Director, said: "Each year in the UK, over half a million people go to hospital suffering from chest pain. The quicker doctors can work out whether this chest pain is caused by a heart attack, the quicker they can start treating people.“Measuring troponin in the blood is the current gold standard for diagnosing a heart attack. This AI-based method could increase the power of the troponin test and make heart attack diagnosis even more accurate in individual patients, allowing them to be more quickly and effectively treated or reassured and sent home.”
A track record of heart attack research
This research builds on millions of pounds funding from us to improve the standard troponin test for diagnosing a heart attack.
Find out about our troponin breakthroughsDimitrios Doudesis, Medical Research Council-funded PhD student at the BHF Centre for Cardiovascular Science, University of Edinburgh who conducted the study said:
“Our algorithm combines readily available information, such as a patient’s age and sex, with the results of high-sensitivity troponin blood tests to work out the likelihood that each individual patient is having a heart attack.”
“If a larger clinical trial confirmed these results, this technology could easily be converted into a mobile app available for use in Emergency Departments across the country.”
Half a million hospital visits
There are more than 200,000 hospital visits each year in the UK due to heart attacks. But chest pain, which can have a number of different causes, is thought to be responsible for over half a million visits to UK Emergency Departments each year.
Dr Ken Lee, BHF clinical research fellow at the University of Edinburgh, who was a co-investigator in the study said:
“Heart attacks can be surprisingly difficult to diagnose. Years of research have meant that we can use a blood test to tell us if person’s heart is damaged. However, this damage isn’t always caused by a heart attack.
“The quicker we can rule a heart attack in or out, the quicker we can treat the patient and the better the result for everyone."