New technique could predict heart attacks

A new imaging method could help improve how doctors predict a patient’s risk of having a heart attack.

University scientists, funded by the British Heart Foundation, have combined different scan techniques to look at the disease process in coronary arteries that lead to heart attacks.

The research, carried out in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, looked at the use of PET scans and CT scans.

Coronary Heart Disease

There are nearly 2.7 million people living with coronary heart disease (CHD) in the UK and it kills 88,000 people each year.

Most of these deaths are caused by a heart attack.

Each year there are around 124,000 heart attacks in the UK.

Computerised tomography (CT) imaging

It involved giving over 100 people a CT calcium score to measure the amount of calcified or hardened plaques in their coronary arteries.

This is a standard test, which is commonly used to predict heart disease risk, but cannot distinguish calcium that has been there for some time from calcium that is actively building up.

Positron emission tomography

The patients were also injected with two tracers, special molecules that show up on certain PET scans and can be used to track substances in the body.

One of these tracers, 18F-sodium fluoride (18F-NaF), is a molecule taken up by cells in which active calcification is occurring.

The researchers wanted to see if they could identify patients with active, ongoing calcifications.

These patients may be at higher risk than patients in whom the calcium developed a long time ago.

Results

The results showed that increased 18F-NaF activity in specific coronary artery plaques in patients who had other high-risk markers of cardiovascular disease.

(Source: University of Edinburgh: Journal of the American College of Cardiology)

More Information

For more information on keeping your heart healthy, including information on how the heart works, the effect of cholesterol and eating for heart health, as well as some useful videos and tools, see Heart Health.