New technology can predict fatal heart attacks

Researchers at the University of Oxford, working with colleagues in Erlangen, Germany and at the Cleveland Clinic, USA, have developed a new technology based on analysis of computed tomography (CT) coronary angiograms that can flag patients at risk of deadly heart attacks years before they occur. Heart attacks are usually caused by inflamed plaques in the coronary artery causing an abrupt blockage of blood getting to the heart. The challenge for doctors is knowing which plaques are most likely to cause blockages, and therefore which patients should be treated with more aggressive therapies. The team at the University of Oxford has shown that the most dangerous plaques release chemical messengers which modify the surrounding fat. They have developed a technology that detects the inflamed plaques that are prone to cause heart attacks by analysing CT images of the fat surrounding the arteries. Their new biomarker, called the Fat Attenuation Index (FAI), has been tested for the first time in a large study published today in The Lancet journal, and was presented at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Munich - the world's largest cardiology meeting. The study, supported by the British Heart Foundation and the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, involved 3,900 patients from Europe (Erlangen, Germany) and the United States (Cleveland Clinic), who were followed up for ten years after they had a CT coronary angiogram.