A new blood test that became available in the U.S. in January 2017, can rule out heart attack in patients with symptoms and suggest whether a patient is likely to have a heart attack within 30 days.
The test is called high-sensitivity TnT — or hs-TnT — and it detects the presence of troponin T proteins in the blood. During a heart attack, troponin proteins spill out of dying cells. This new test is 1,000 times more sensitive at detecting the proteins than standard TnT tests.
For emergency room physicians, the test has the benefit of taking the guess-work out of observing symptoms. A patient with the symptoms of a heart attack might have to spend a day in the hospital under observation. But with the hs-TnT test, patients can be released in a few hours instead of a day.
