A high-tech bracelet is being developed that can detect a heart attack in minutes, increasing the chances that patients will make a good recovery.
The bracelet, called a Tropsensor, can detect elevated levels of a protein called troponin in sweat on the skin. The test currently used in hospitals, which requires a blood sample, can take hours to confirm a result.
Troponin is released by heart muscle cells when they are damaged during a heart attack. It circulates in the bloodstream, but can also be collected in sweat.
When a patient suspected of having a heart attack arrives at the hospital, doctors usually take a blood sample to check for elevated levels of the protein. They also perform an electrocardiogram (ECG), a measure of the heart’s electrical activity, to look for signs of disruption that may indicate a seizure.
But it can take several hours for the troponin test results to come back from the lab to confirm the diagnosis. During this time, the heart muscle can be further damaged, increasing the likelihood of long-term heart failure, in which the organ is so weakened by trauma that it can’t pump blood properly throughout the body.
A high-tech bracelet is being developed that can detect a heart attack in minutes, increasing the chances that patients will make a good recovery (file photo)
Other common triggers for heart failure, which affects around 900,000 people in the UK, include high blood pressure, damaged heart valves and even viral infections like COVID-19.
In the UK, there are an estimated 100,000 hospital admissions each year due to heart attacks, one every five minutes on average.
In the 1960s, more than seven out of ten were fatal. Now, seven out of ten people survive, but experts hope to further increase this number with faster treatment. Approximately 1.4 million Britons are heart attack survivors.
The scientists behind the Tropsensor bracelet hope it will help cut the time it takes to confirm someone has had a heart attack to a few minutes, meaning doctors could start life-saving treatment much sooner, including administering medication. blood thinners or stent implantation, to restore blood flow to the heart, before more heart muscle cells die.
The Tropsensor is currently a matchbox-sized prototype, strapped to the patient with a wrist strap. The scientists are now working to compress the technology into a simple bracelet.
The device works by emitting infrared light onto the surface of the skin. Sensors inside the device measure the rate at which light is absorbed. If no troponin is present, most of the light will simply bounce off the device. If troponin is present, light is absorbed by it.
The device can also detect how much light is absorbed: the more that is absorbed, the higher the level of the protein.
In a recent trial involving 239 patients in India with suspected heart attacks, doctors looked at whether high skin troponin levels found by the device correlated with those who ultimately had a blocked artery and a heart attack diagnosis. The results, which were presented at the American College of Cardiology annual meeting in New Orleans earlier this month, revealed that the Tropsensor device resulted in a correct diagnosis 90 percent of the time.
When the device measured abnormal troponin levels, patients were four times more likely to have a blocked artery than those with a negative troponin result.
Research Professor Partho Sengupta, a cardiac specialist at Robert Wood University Hospital in New Brunswick, USA, said: “This is exciting: it increases our ability for early diagnosis of heart attacks.”
“There is still a lot of work to be done, but this device could shorten treatment time: emergency services could plan a patient’s treatment even before they arrive at the hospital.”
In the UK, there are an estimated 100,000 hospital admissions each year due to heart attacks, one every five minutes on average.
But Francisco Leyva-Leon, a professor of cardiology at Aston University in Birmingham, said he believed the technology would be better suited for reading patients’ troponin levels when they are already in hospital awaiting diagnosis.
“That would eliminate the need for a blood test, which would be great,” he said.
“But this device needs proper validation, and while it looks great, there is a long way to go before it can be used routinely.”
Researchers have yet to explore how well the device will work with different skin tones and wrist sizes, but the current prototype has been approved for trial use by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Professor Sengupta added: “With this level of precision, if a patient tests positive with this device, you’re pretty sure treatment can be sped up.”