New test may speed detection of heart attacks

A heart attack (more formally known as myocardial infarction) isn’t always an instantly recognizable event. Severe chest pain often has nothing to do with the heart or blood vessels. Some heart attacks are so small they pass almost unnoticed, written off as indigestion or the flu. Others are major catastrophes, causing death or long-lasting disability. amateur porn A new blood test may help speed the diagnosis. This is important, because the sooner a heart attack is diagnosed, the sooner treatment can begin. The sooner treatment begins, the more heart muscle can be saved. Fifty years ago, doctors had to rely on a person’s symptoms and sometimes hard-to-interpret changes on an electrocardiogram to determine if a heart attack was under way. Today, blood tests are available that can detect the chemical signature of dying heart cells. The blood test preferred today is called troponin. Troponin is a protein complex found almost exclusively in heart and skeletal muscle cells. Its sudden release into the bloodstream signals damage to the heart muscle. Combining troponin results with characteristic changes on the electrocardiogram and symptoms is currently the gold standard for identifying myocardial infarction. Within the first few hours of a heart attack, though, both the troponin level and the electrocardiogram can be normal. That means people with results in the gray zone are observed and monitored for 12 to 16 hours with more troponin tests and electrocardiograms.