When a heart attack strikes, the difference between recovery and possibly death is counted in the minutes between the attack and treatment.
Now, a new procedure developed by two researchers at the Florida A&M University-Florida State University College of Engineering holds the promise of cutting minutes or hours off the time it takes to begin life-saving treatment by speeding up the detection of a heart attack.
Yousef Haik, a professor of chemical and mechanical engineering, said the procedure takes as little as three minutes after a blood sample is drawn to determine whether a person has suffered a heart attack. A 30-minute lab test is currently required to determine whether someone has suffered a heart attack after a blood sample is delivered. Unlike the conventional lab test, the new procedure could determine the existence and severity of a heart attack just minutes after a patient is seen by a doctor, goes into an emergency room or is seen by paramedics responding to an emergency call.
"If we could do the whole test at the point of care instead of having to send the blood sample to a lab, we could save a lot of people's lives," Haik said. He is being assisted in the research by the dean of the engineering school, Ching-Jen Chen.
The procedure uses magnet technology to remove two proteins from the blood sample - myoglobin and fatty acid binding protein. These so-called "cardiac markers" elevate in the blood and peak within four to six hours of an attack.
Tiny magnetic particles more than 1,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair are mixed with the blood and bind to the proteins. The cardiac markers are then separated from the rest of the blood sample by a magnet and easily measured.
The level of the two proteins in blood drops almost as quickly as it peaks, making early diagnosis of a heart attack critical.
"Heart attacks are blood clots that lodge in the heart and disrupt blood flow," said Dr. Joseph Scherger, dean of FSU's College of Medicine, who has seen Haik and Chen's work. The clot almost immediately causes heart muscle to die, so the faster medication can be given to dissolve it the greater a patient's chances of recovery.
"The earlier any diagnosis can be made of a heart attack can dramatically help in the treatment and increase a patient's ability to prevent heart damage," Scherger said.
According to a 1999 study by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, about 800,000 people suffer heart attacks each year in the United States and about 213,000 of them die. At least half of those die within one hour of the attack and before reaching a hospital or emergency room.
The College of Engineering has applied for a patent on the procedure but is taking the research a step further. Haik and Chen are working on building a portable blood test kit that physicians and other health professionals could carry in their pockets to test the blood of potential heart attack victims on the spot. Researchers in FSU's physics and biology departments are working on a similar project, as well.
"The steps for faster detection of heart attacks we already know," said Dean Chen. "Now, we're miniaturizing the device to make detection even faster."
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