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Research on Metabolite Profiling Makes Early Detection of Heart Attacks a Reality

by Tanya Thomas on Sep 5 2008 8:58 AM

Metabolite profiling- that’s the new mechanism researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown have discovered which could facilitate early detection of heart attacks.

To test the method, Robert Gerszten and colleagues conducted a study, in which blood samples were collected before and after a number of patients with the heart condition hypertrophic cardiomyopathy were treated using a medical procedure that creates a small controlled heart attack.

The samples were analyzed using the new method.

Changes in a number of metabolites were observed only 10 minutes after the planned heart attack.

The researchers observed this same signature of changes in a second series of patients undergoing the same procedure and in a number of patients spontaneously having a heart attack.

According to the researchers, no other method can detect changes indicating a heart attack so soon after it has occurred, and hope that their approach can be used to improve early detection of a heart attack.

Source-ANI
TAN/M


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