SCOTTISH HOSPITAL NEWS


HEART TEST SAFE FOR GLOBAL USE, STUDY FINDS


of all people arriving at hospital emergency departments with chest pains, a worldwide study has found.


The test measures levels of a protein called troponin – which is released by damaged heart cells – in patients’ blood. The higher the level of troponin in the blood, the more likely it is that a person has had – or is likely to have – a heart attack.


A blood test that spots whether people are at risk of a heart attack could improve the treatment of people with chest pain at emergency


departments around the world, a study has suggested.


The test can accurately rule out the risk of heart attack in almost half


In early studies, the test accurately predicted the risk of heart attack in more than 6000 patients admitted to hospital in Scotland. The latest research, led by the University of Edinburgh, involved almost 23,000 people at 19 hospitals across Europe, North America and Australasia, who received the test after arriving with chest pains.


The findings pinpointed a threshold level of troponin in the blood, below which patients are unlikely to have


FIRST-EVER PATIENTS SCANNED BY NEW GENERATION MRI SCANNER


A team at the University of Aberdeen has scanned the first group of patients using a ground-breaking ‘Fast Field Cycling’ MRI scanner. The patients had all suffered strokes and agreed to be the first in the world to be scanned by the new machine.


In the 1970s, a team at the university built the first full-body MRI scanner and used it to obtain the first clinically useful image of a patient.


MRI scanners use a large magnet along with pulses of radiowaves to create detailed pictures of a patient’s anatomy, but Fast Field Cycling scanners are able to extract much more information by switching the strength of the magnetic field during the scanning procedure. The technology has been under development for the last ten years.


‘Because FFC scanners can switch their magnetic field,’ said research group leader, Professor David Lurie, ‘it is almost like having 100 different MRI scanners in one. This gives an extra dimension to the data collected from each patient, greatly expanding the diagnostic potential. It is incredibly exciting to have imaged our first patients. This is a major


step towards our technology being adopted by hospitals to benefit patients, which is the ultimate goal of our research.’


The team, based at the University’s


School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition, has already shown the potential benefit of FFC-MRI for diagnosis by studying tissues obtained from patients who have


had a heart attack and are at very low risk of experiencing one in the next 30 days. Results from the test – which costs around £5 per patient – can be obtained in as little as 20 minutes, helping to safely rule out a heart attack within an hour of arrival at hospital.


Now, experts are calling for international guidelines for the treatment of chest pain to be updated so that the test can be integrated into standard care.


‘We believe,’ said Dr Andrew Chapman, British Heart Foundation Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh, ‘the findings of this worldwide study will provide national and international guidelines committees with the evidence they need to recommend the use of troponin testing to rule out heart attacks much earlier in the emergency department.’


had surgery. Now, for the first time, their prototype scanner – unique in the World – has been used to image the brains of patients who have recently suffered from a stroke. It is hoped that the extra information coming from Fast Field Cycling-MRI will help doctors better delineate the brain tissue around the stroke- affected part of the brain, helping to plan treatment and monitor recovery.


Prof David Lurie


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