A recent study conducted in Sweden has found one blood test that is incredibly accurate at determining if someone will have a heart attack.
The blood test used in the study looks for the substance called troponin, which is a sign of heart damage. The study included around 15,000 people that went to the Karolinska University hospital in Sweden. Of those given the blood test, roughly 9,000 who also had normal electrocardiograms (ECG) were sent home. Only 15 people out of the 9,000 tested suffered a heart attack in the next month and none of them died, the Associated Press notes.
“Using this blood test along with an ECG, we will save about 500 to 1,000 admissions per year in our hospital alone, allowing us to use the beds for sicker patients,” Dr. Nadia Bandstein, from the Karolinska University hospital in Sweden, told WebMD.
The blood test used in the study has been available in Europe, Asia and Canada for around three years, but it’s not yet available in the United States. Some doctors believe that the blood test should be brought to the U.S., but others believe that it is too sensitive and that it will pick up small samples of troponin that could lead to unnecessary tests, the Associated Press notes.
