A New Test Can Tell If You're Going to Have a Heart Attack
Scientists have developed a test that detects whether the large,
misshapen, mutant cells that indicate you're due for an acute
myocardial infarction are circulating through your bloodstream.
That's right: There's a heart attack test. And it works.
Researchers from two Scripps science institutes in San Diego
found that "circulating endothelial cells" taken from recent
heart attack patients were big and deformed and often had
multiple nuclei. They think the patients likely had the
malformed cells before their cardiac episode, and that testing
for them could be an urgent red flag. Dr. Eric Topol, the
study's principal investigator says:  The ability to diagnose an
imminent heart attack has long been considered the holy grail of
cardiovascular medicine ... (it's) an important discovery that
may help to change the future of cardiovascular medicine.  The
researchers looked at 50 patients who had shown up in emergency
rooms with heart attacks at four hospi