Study Reveals New Heart Attack Prediction Method

New Heart Attack Prediction Method

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh, the BHF Centre of Research Excellence, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, have tested a new method for diagnosis of patients with increased risk of heart attack. Researchers have developed a combined technique of PET and CT scanning of active calcification leading to coronary artery stenosis. Dr Marc Dweck, lead author on the research paper and a BHF Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, noted that screening patients at high risk of heart attack is not easy because investigations are not perfect. He added that this new discovery is very promising in predicting a heart attack. However, further investigations are necessary for PET CT scan to be used in current clinical practice. New imaging technique not only determines the cardiovascular risk of patients with coronary artery disease, but can also reduce the chances for a patient to present heart attacks.

Patients with calcified plaque and active calcifications may be  stented in order to  recanalize blood vessel.
The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and was conducted on 100 patients with coronary heart disease. Patients were injected two tracers that can visualize active calcified plaque inactive. 18F-sodium fluoride (18F-NaF), is one of the tracers, which is taken up in cells in which calcifications are active. 18F-NaF PET scans is then measured. Interesting to note that 18F-NaF was found in very high levels in patients with multiple cardiovascular factors.

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of mortality in the world. In the UK alone they kill 88,000 people each year. Generally speaking, coronary disease  refers to a stenosis of blood vessel from the heart. If the vessel is occluded blood does not circulate properly, and the heart muscle is not oxygenated. Therefore, myocardial ischemia occurs and this condition is sometimes translated as angina, a chest pain that has a constrictive character. It should be noted that myocardial ischemia may also be silent, as in patients with diabetes who have sensory neuropathy. When the blood vessel is completely blocked a heart attack occurs. The vessel is blocked due to plaque buildup. In time, plaque can be complicated by platelet aggregation and calcification. Patients with unstable plaque buildup are investigated by coronagraphy to see how much of the vessel is blocked and what is the risk of myocardial infarction. There are other tests such as intracoronary echocardiography, MRI, exercise testing, scintigraphy with technetium.

Benefit of PET / CT has been shown before, when Dr. Dweck has used this technique to analyze more closely aortic stenosis, a valvular heart disease characterized by narrowing of the aortic orifice.