The technological advance offers an early warning system for heart attacks

The technological advance offers an early warning system for heart attacks https://www.eresviral.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/El-avance-tecnológico-ofrece-un-sistema-de-alerta-temprana-para-ataques-cardíacos

The technological advance offers an early warning system for heart attacks







OXFORD, England (Reuters) - A new computed tomography imaging method can predict which patients are at risk for a heart attack years before it happens, the researchers said. 

The technology, developed by teams at the University of Oxford and institutions in Germany and the United States, uses algorithms to examine the fat that surrounds the coronary arteries as it appears on computerized tomography (CT) scans. 

That fat is altered when an artery becomes inflamed, which serves as an early warning system for what one of the researchers believes could represent 30 percent of heart attacks. 

"If you can identify the inflammation in the arteries of the heart, then you can tell which arteries ... will cause heart attacks," Oxford Cardiovascular Medicine Professor Charalambos Antoniades told Reuters.  

"With the new technology we have, we can achieve this by analyzing simple computerized tomography." 

Most heart attacks are caused by a buildup of plaque (a deposit of fat) inside the artery, which interrupts the flow of blood. 

Currently, CT scans tell a doctor when an artery has already narrowed through the plaque.  

With the new technology, for which researchers hope to obtain regulatory approval on both sides of the Atlantic within a year, doctors will be able to tell which arteries are at risk of narrowing. 

"(We) can say ... your arteries are inflamed and a narrowing will develop within five years, so maybe I can initiate preventive measures to prevent this formation of the plates," said Antoniades. 

Heart disease and stroke are the two leading causes of death worldwide. 

"Although we have not estimated the exact number of heart attacks we can prevent, we could potentially identify at least 20 or 30 percent of people before they have (one)," Antoniades said. 

A spin-off company from the University of Oxford is developing a service to analyze CT scans from around the world in approximately 24 hours. 

The research was published at the end of August in the medical journal The Lancet. 









FILE PHOTO: a monitor shows a three-dimensional image of a human heart at the Klaus-Tschira-Institute for Integrative Computational Cardiology, department of the University Hospital of Heidelberg (Universitaetsklinik Heidelberg), in Heidelberg, Germany, August 14, 2018. REUTERS / Ralph Orlowski / Stock Photo







Edited by John Stonestreet





Our Rules:The principles of trust of Thomson Reuters.

        .
    .


SOURCE LINK ERESVIRAL.COM 
https://www.beviral.online