The Abbott heart attack test is promising in a small study

Diving Brief:

• The researchers presented preliminary data suggesting that Abbott's experimental i-STAT TnI-Nx can exclude acute myocardial infarction (AMI) at the point of treatment.

• Reliable point-of-care testing could replace the lab tests used today, reducing the time needed to deliver results and expanding access to IAM screening for rural communities.

• However, the Abbott-funded study was relatively small and had other limitations that precluded drawing concrete conclusions from the data it generated.

Insight on diving:

Many patients who come to emergency services with symptoms of AMI, medical term designating a heart attack, will not be suffering from a cardiovascular event when performing stress tests. diagnostic. However, the blood test of the IAM surveys takes time. The blood is taken from the patient, sent to a central laboratory, centrifuged and tested for cardiac troponin. Meanwhile, the patient consumes resources in the health facility.

Abbott, which makes the lab test, wants to reduce the time it takes to remove an AMI to 15 minutes, allowing health care providers to investigate and release patients more quickly. The Mitsubishi Chemical and Quidel tests perform similarly to laboratory tests for diagnosing heart attacks, but their accuracy at low concentrations makes them less able to quickly remove an AMI.

To evaluate whether the Abbott test, which uses i-STAT, gives better results in this context, New Zealand researchers analyzed samples taken from 354 patients presenting with emergency symptoms of AMI. Abbott performed the tests and shared the data with the researchers.

The analysis revealed that Abbott's workplace test was as effective in excluding an AMI as laboratory testing. The experimental test correctly identified 201 patients on a low risk of heart attack. The laboratory test yielded comparable results.

The results are encouraging for Abbott but do not provide conclusive evidence that his test can exclude the MAI in the real world. In the study, the point-of-care test used the plasma, not the whole blood samples to be analyzed for results in 15 minutes. The test should be performed at the patient's bedside to truly assess accuracy, speed and cost-effectiveness.

Abbott Vice President Matt Bates said the early results "will help guide our research and development of the next generation of cardiac tests".