Technological Innovations and Advancements in lab tests in Cardiac Care Market

By Dr. Asha Bhatnagar, MBBS & Lab Director at Lifeline Laboratory

With rising illnesses like stroke and IHD (ischemic heart disease) contributing significantly to global mortality and disability, cardiovascular devices and their importance in heart-related therapies are increasingly gaining attention. That is why Patient Monitoring is being made easier on a daily basis with upgraded wearable technology in electronic devices to track heart health in smartwatches or smartphones.

Several technological developments in Cardiac CT scanners, such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are widely used to speed up post-examination processing. Also, The damaged vascular segments are also exhibited in 3-D using Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, providing a 360-degree view of the lab diagnostic procedure. While all these technological innovations are available in the medical industry, it’s more important than ever to be aware of heart disease diagnosis.

LET’S HAVE A LOOK AT SOME OF THE ADVANCES IN LAB TESTS FOR CARDIAC CARE IN HEALTHCARE MARKET

There are emerging advances in technology for the screening of heart disease, with innovations in both pathology tests as well as radiology tests.

Conventional blood tests for cardiac screening to determine heart attack risk and heart damage:

• Lipid Profile: Lipid profile measures the fat content in the blood.
• Total cholesterol levels, if high, can increase the risk of heart disease. Ideally, the readings should measure below 200 mg/dL.
• Low density lipoprotein (LDL) or ‘bad’ cholesterol readings should be below 70 mg/dL for those in high-risk category of heart disease and have pre-existing comorbidities like diabetes, obesity and hypertension; readings below 130 mg/dL are ideal for the rest.
• High density lipoprotein (HDL) or ‘good’ cholesterol readings should be above 40 mg/dL (for men) and 50 mg/dL (for women).
• Triglycerides or fat content in the blood are measured to assess the risk of atherosclerosis. High levels (more than 150 mg/dL) indicate the presence of atherosclerosis, or stroke, and/or pre-diabetes or diabetes. Extremely high levels can cause pancreatitis wherein the pancreas is acutely inflamed and on the verge of collapse.
• Non-HDL-Cholesterol measures the cholesterol in lipoprotein particles and is a better risk marker.
• CRP (high sensitivity) cardio marker indicates the presence of inflammation. High levels could indicate a high risk for heart attack, stroke and heart disease.
• Plasma ceramides is a cardiac marker test which assesses the extent of atherosclerosis (hardening and clogging of arteries and smaller blood vessels).
• B-type natriuretic peptides (BNP or pro-BNP) cardio marker test helps to determine if symptoms of breathlessness or shortness of breath in a patient are due to congestive heart failure or not. Elevated levels indicate congestive heart failure.
• Ischemia modified albumin (IMA): Changes in the albumin level may be a warning of a heart attack in the event of chest pain symptoms. However, IMA levels may be high even in the absence of ischemia.
• Creatinine Kinase (CK-MB) is a sub-type of CK, and is considered more sensitive for assessing damage in the heart from a heart attack and may show elevated levels about 6 hours after a heart attack. It reverts to normal levels in a couple of days. Thus, it is not considered an ideal biomarker to assess if the chest pain symptom was a heart attack or not.
• Myoglobin protein stores oxygen and may not be a specific biomarker in the diagnosis of a heart attack.

Some of the Recent tests for accurate assessment of Heart Attack and Heart Damage

• Troponin T & I proteins are specific to the heart muscle and get released into the blood when the heart muscle is damaged in the wake of a recent heart attack or heart episode, and remain in the bloodstream long after all other biomarkers go back to normal levels after an attack. This high sensitivity test is a relatively recent cardiac marker test which is considered the best and most certain biomarker for assessing heart disease risk in the absence of any current or previous history of heart disease. Elevated levels indicate a definite recent heart attack, heart injury or heart damage.
• Lipoprotein (a) or Lipoprotein phospholipase (LpPLA2): Elevated levels are indicative of a high risk of early onset heart disease due to family history and the risk of developing heart disease in the future.