Scientists from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College, London have developed a simple new blood test which can help predict if you are likely to have a heart attack.

Dr David Grainger of the University of Cambridge, one of the team who developed the test, said:
"Thousands of people die in the UK each year from heart attacks. Many of these lives would be saved if we could pick out people with heart disease quickly and cheaply."

The principle of the test involves measuring the magnetic properties of molecules in blood using high frequency radio waves and analysing them using an advanced computer program that detects abnormal patterns of signals associated with heart disease.

The expert computer system correctly identified all the people with heart disease using only a few drops of blood. Larger trials of the technology are already underway at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire, one the leading heart hospitals in the UK, and if these are successful the test could be widely available within two years.

"This technology has the potential to diagnose a whole range of diseases from osteoporosis to cancer. A visit to the doctors 10 years from today could be very different: he would be able to perform a single blood test and tell you in minutes which diseases you are likely to suffer from. It won’t replace doctors, but it will make their lives much easier."
said Dr Elaine Holmes, one of the scientists who invented the technology on which the test is based.

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