A report has today revealed that almost a third of patients in England and Wales are being given a misdiagnosis following a heart attack, following a study of 243 NHS hospitals, conducted by researchers at Leeds University.

Timely evaluation of patients with chest pain and subsequently suspected heart attack is a major challenge for hospitals around the world, with chest pain typically representing around 5% of all visits to the Emergency Department (ED) and 25% of ED admissions. One of the biggest challenges facing emergency doctors now is how to prioritise people presenting with chest pain – to primarily deal with those suffering from a heart attack, and to be able to move those who are not, to a different ward, to alleviate the pressures of the overrun A&E departments.

Responding to the escalating misdiagnosis crisis in emergency hospitals across the globe, scientists at Randox Laboratories in the UK have developed a test which could help clinicians rule out heart attacks in patients immediately upon arrival at hospital; allowing clinicians to accurately prioritise those who have truly suffered heart attacks.

This Randox test, for Heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (H-FABP), is a highly sensitive biomarker for use in the earlier diagnosis of patients with suspected Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI), enabling faster “rule-in” and “rule-out”. H-FABP is detectable as early as 30 minutes after chest pain onset, significantly earlier than traditionally used biomarkers such as Troponin or CK-MB , which typically require 6-12 hours to reach detectable concentrations.

Put simply, given that H-FABP is released earlier than traditional biomarkers used in diagnosing a heart attack, an earlier diagnosis is achievable.  

A succession of recent international clinical trials have demonstrated that by combining H-FABP, via this new laboratory assay, with the existing tests already used in hospitals for for Troponin I or Troponin T, the sensitivity and negative predictive value for ruling out AMIs is significantly improved.

Growing evidence indicates that even when one of the newer generation of “highly sensitive” Troponin assays is used, utilising the combination of Troponin and H-FABP is superior to Troponin alone.

The value of H-FABP is not just in positive diagnosis – but doctors are beginning to see it as a means of ‘ruling out heart attack’ when a patient presents at A&E with chest pain.

 

Please do get in touch if you would like to find out more about our H-FABP test, and how this can go a long way in solving the heart attack misdiagnosis crisis, by emailing reagents@randox.com