New Heart Risk Test Coming Soon

Christchurch researchers provided the stepping stone to a new test that will be able to identify patients at risk of a heart attack months in advance.

Doctors will be able to identify patients at risk of a heart attack up to six months before it happens by testing for an enzyme first investigated by Christchurch scientists 20 years ago.

Two scientists at the Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Tony Kettle and Christine Winterbourn, were the first people to study seriously the enzyme myeloperoxidase (MPO).

When found in the coronary blood vessel the enzyme signals the likelihood of a heart attack. A United States professor, Stanley Hazen, discovered the connection between MPO and heart attacks.

“Higher levels of this enzyme are predictive of heart attack or even death,” said Hazen, who was in Christchurch for The Society for Free Radical Research conference at the weekend.

Hazen’s findings have been supported by a subsequent German study.

Hazen said chest pain, currently the most common indicator of an oncoming heart attack, was reported frequently in hospital emergency rooms.

Most of these complaints turned out to be a false alarm.

The MPO test, which could be conducted using a hand-held device by the patient’s bedside, could help cut health costs dramatically, said Hazen.

“It will help us start to focus limited resources on who is the most in need so we can focus on individuals at increased risk,” Hazen said.

He said one in every two people in industrial countries would be affected by coronary disease and one in every three would die from it. “That’s more than all cancers combined,” he said. The test will be made commercially available early next year.

MPO is a blood cell protein which fights infection by generating a reactive bleach-like substance, and turns nasal mucus green.

“This same caustic component that kills pathogens also causes tissue damage. We think people with higher levels of the enzyme are better prepared to live past the reproductive age, but as we get past the reproductive age when hardening of the arteries occurs, this enzyme is linked to increased risk for the development of heart disease,” Hazen said.

Christchurch researchers are looking at a possible connection between MPO and cystic fibrosis.