Timely test for heart attacks

It may take less time to find out if a patient is having a heart attack or not, thanks to a new emergency department bedside blood test.
The new test can rule out a heart attack in just 15 minutes, rather than the 1-2 hours it can take to get results from current laboratory blood-testing procedure, according to co-researcher John Pickering of the University of Otago.

The new method of testing measures a protein in the blood called cardiac troponin and has the potential to free up precious time and resources, joint researchers from Canterbury District Health Board and Christchurch Heart Institute say.

JAMA, Cardiology, October 2018