Home » The Sample

Before the Attack

March 22, 2012

As they report in Science Translational Medicine, the Scripps Translational Science Institute's Eric Topol and his colleagues have found that circulating endothelial cells from blood vessel linings might be diagnostic for acute myocardial infarctions. Using a three-channel fluorescence assay, the researchers were able to find that circulating endothelial cells from heart attack patients — who had more circulating endothelial cells than controls — had distinct morphology. "These cells shouldn't be in the blood. If you have them, you have trouble lurking," Topol tells the Los Angeles Times.

The researchers also note in Science Translational Medicine that "these distinctive cell characteristics may be useful in developing a refined biomarker for arterial injury" and, perhaps, an assay to predict heart attack risk, particularly as they appear in the blood a few days before any MI event. "This could be especially helpful for the many patients who come into emergency rooms every day complaining of vague chest-tightening or tingling sensations, but show no signs of the elevated heart enzymes that would indicate a heart attack," adds Time magazine's Healthland.