Heartbeat: Simple test which will reduce the risk of stroke
June 14, 2021
Cardiologists at our Trust have discovered a simple blood test which identifies patients with a life threatening heart condition which could lead to a stroke.
The new test will detect whether the patient has Atrial Fibrillation (AF), which causes an irregular and abnormally fast heart rate – but the discovery also means it will reduce the risk of stroke by 60 per cent.
More than 1,600 patients took part in a research study carried out by medics at our Trust between 2014 and 2018.
Dr Yanish Purmah, Consultant Cardiologist, explained: “This important research was focused on identifying blood-based biomarkers (proteins) for the identification of AF which is the most common cardiac rhythm abnormality.
“Patients with AF have a fivefold increased risk of having a stroke. Many of these patients do not know that they have this underlying illness and present with a stroke before the heart condition is diagnosed.
“If AF is diagnosed earlier, patients could be started on medicines to reduce the risk of a stroke by around 60 per cent. The current challenge is trying to identify which patients would benefit from screening for AF, in order to detect the heart condition before complications happen.”
A research paper was published recently in the PLOS Medicine Journal about the study.
Dr Purmah added: “The research is based on the Birmingham and Black Country Atrial Fibrillation Registry (BBC-AF Registry) – a large registry study carried out exclusively at the Trust.
“Previous work from the BBC-AF Registry published in 2019 showed that two proteins (BNP and FGF-23) were very effective at identifying patients with underlying AF. The levels of these proteins have now been adequately quantified by working in close in collaboration with Roche Diagnostics.
“We have shown that using a simple blood test consisting of NT-proBNP and FGF-23 proteins, along with simple information, such as the patient’s age, gender and body mass index, we were able to identify patients who were most at risk of having AF, and therefore screening efforts could be streamlined to focus on the high-risk groups. These results of our study have potential important clinical implications for screening for AF in the future.
“Overall, it highlights the ongoing commitment of our Trust to encourage active involvement in research studies, in order to provide the best care for our patients, both locally and beyond.”
Dr Derek Connolly, Director of Research and Development, added: “This study, done in our Trust in combination with the University of Birmingham, is a big advance in looking for AF, the commonest rhythm disturbance we see.
“AF can affect one and four of us over the age of 40 and increases the risk of stroke five-fold. This shows that research in our Trust can change practice.”