Heart Attack Leaves Trace in the Heart, Scientists Find

Sharon Moore January 13, 2014

Fatty plaque build-up on the walls of blood vessels is prone to rupture, releasing fragments of the plaque into the bloodstream. This causes a blockage in the flow of blood in the vessels around the heart, leading to heart attack. During this process, endothelial cells are also released into the blood – a new study suggests.

Researchers from Scripps Research Institute in California examined whether testing for the cells can be used to predict those about to have a heart attack. Tests in 79 patients who had heart attack were compared with that of 25 healthy controls, as well as 7 who are undergoing treatments for diseased blood vessels.

"The goal of this paper was to establish evidence that these circulating endothelial cells can be detected reliably in patients following a heart attack and do not exist in healthy controls, which we have achieved.” co-researcher Prof Peter Kuhn said.

"Our results were so significant relative to the healthy controls that the obvious next step is to assess the usefulness of the test in identifying patients during the early stages of a heart attack."

Whilst it is unlikely that it change how people with heart disease are treated, the British Heart foundation said the new research could serve as groundwork for future research to identify patients in the early stages of heart attack.

Just recently, scientists from the University of Edinburgh have discovered a new way of identifying who may be at risk of heart attack. It involved using a radioactive tracer which can seek out active and dangerous plaques, combined with high resolution images of the heart and blood vessels. This results to a detailed picture of the heart with the danger zones clearly highlighted. Such technology is already being used to detect tumours in cancer patients.

In general, around one third of people who have a heart attack die as a result. These deaths often occur before a person reaches hospital, or alternatively, within the first 28 days after the heart attack, according to the NHS.

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Heart attack ’leaves cellular trace’