Scan predicting heart attack holds promise of making “massive difference” to heart patients

A new way of scanning the heart can identify people at high risk of a heart attack, according to early tests.

It can identify dangerous plaques in the arteries that nourish the heart. The rupture of a fatty plaque could can lead to a clot, interrupting blood flow.

According to scientists at the University of Edinburgh, an effective tool for predicting a heart attack would make a "massive difference" to patients.

With the help of a radioactive agent researchers sought out plaque, displaying it with high resolution images of the heart and blood vessels.

The overall effect was a detailed picture of the heart with the danger zones clearly highlighted. The technology is in use to detect tumours in cancer patients.

The first technique for identification of danger spots in the heart was first used on 40 patients who had recently suffered a heart attack.

According to the study published in the medical journal Lancet, the scan highlighted the plaque which was responsible for the heart attack in 37 of the patients.

According to commentators, the technique would allow patients close to suffering a heart attack or stroke to be treated aggressively with drugs or surgery in a bid to save them.

The study, funded by the British Heart Foundation and the Scottish Government's Chief Scientist Office, involved two groups of 40 patients, one group who had just had a heart attack and the other suffered from angina and were at risk of having one.

Over 90 per cent of those in the first group had a lit-up area in one of their blood vessels, that corresponded to the exact location of the plaque that caused their heart attack.

About 40 per cent of patients with angina also had a plaque that lit up, as also high-risk features that suggested a heart attack might be imminent, and treatment would be required.

Both the tracer and the PET-CT scan used in the test are in wide use in hospitals with the former used in bone imaging for several decades, and the latter commonly used in cancer diagnosis.

According to Dr Nikhil Joshi of Edinburgh University, the researchers had shown for the first time that high risk fatty plaques - on the verge of potentially causing a heart attack could be detected on a PET-CT scan in the arteries supplying the heart with blood.