Several blood tests like troponin T, copeptin and creatine phosphokinase have been developed to diagnose heart attack. All these are invasive in nature, requires drawing of blood from the patient and do not diagnose an early coronary heart disease.
Now an urine test is being developed to diagnose early heart disease.
The non-invasive test called urinary proteome analysis, could not only assist in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease but also in monitoring its progress and the efficacy of treatment.
The researchers analysed 586 urine samples from 408 individuals to identify a pattern of 238 polypeptide proteins which indicated coronary artery disease.
They then recruited 138 individuals; 71 with coronary artery disease and 67 healthy volunteers and using the pattern of 238 proteins were able to identify those with coronary artery disease with almost 90 per cent accuracy.
This test has the potential to diagnose early coronary artery disease with very good degree of accuracy well before the disease progresses to its conclusion; a heart stroke.
