New blood tests are not enough to predict heart attacks
Trenton (US)-New blood tests that doctorshoped would more accurately predict which patients areheaded for a heart attack or stroke are no better thancholesterol levels, blood pressure and other conventionalmeasurements, a study found.The study was published in today's New England Journal ofMedicine. Doctors in recent years had become excited oversubstances in the blood that appeared to be powerful newpredictors of a heart attack. These substances includedC-reactive protein, or CRP; homocysteine; and BNP, or B-typenatriuretic peptide.An increasing number of family doctors have been orderingexpensive tests for these substances, and some patients havestarted requesting them, in hopes of identifying people who donot have the standard risk factors but are still likely tosuffer a heart attack or stroke.But the new research, by scientists at the highlyregarded Framingham Heart Study, found that tests of CRP, BNP,homocysteine and seven other substances are only a couple ofpercentage points better at predicting outcomes than thestandard, commonsense risk factors that doctors have known fordecades.The difference in accuracy was considered so small as tobe negligible."It's a little bit disappointing," said lead author DrThomas J Wang, a Harvard Medical School assistantprofessor.