Doctors find clue in quest to predict heart attack

Now scientists have found a clue that one day may help doctors determine if a heart attack is imminent. Too often, people pass a cardiac checkup only to collapse with a heart attack days later. Most heart attacks happen when fatty deposits in an artery burst open, and a blood clot then forms to seal the break. If the clot is too big, it blocks off blood flow. The problem: Today's best tests can't predict when that's about to happen. "We don't have a way to get at whether an artery's going to crack, the precursor to a heart attack," said Dr. Eric Topol, director of California's Scripps Translational Science Institute. Wednesday, Scripps researchers reported a new lead - by searching people's blood for cells that appear to flake off the lining of a severely diseased artery. Topol's team measured high levels of those cells, deformed ones, floating in the blood of 50 people who'd just had a heart attack. The research is reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Next, Topol said his team soon will begin needed studies to learn how early those cells might appear before a heart attack, and if spotting them could allow use of clot-preventing drugs to ward off damage. From: Gulfnews