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Heart Attacks

Aired October 23, 2003 - 13:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's the leading cause of death in America, and now doctors may soon have a potent, new weapon in the fight against heart disease, and it's as simple as a blood test. Of course, it's never really as simple as that.
Elizabeth Cohen is here to give us the nuances of the story.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: If it were as simple as that, you wouldn't need me, right?

O'BRIEN: That's right. And we're glad you're here.

COHEN: Well, thank you.

O'BRIEN: So explain it, will you?

COHEN: Well, there is a lot of excitement about this test. Rarely actually have I heard quite this much excitement about a new test. What it is, is that when people go to the emergency room with chest pain, doctors have to figure out, are they having a heart attack, or perhaps about to have a heart attack, or is it perhaps, no big deal? And so they do a battery of tests to figure that out. This blood test would be an additional test on top of those other ones, and it's much more accurate. Take a look at these numbers -- the new test gives 95 percent accuracy at predicting heart attacks, whether or not the person's going to have a heart attack in the next six months. Current tests are only 50 percent accurate at predicting heart attacks.

Now it's very important that this diagnosis be made correctly in the emergency room, because if someone is going to have a heart attack soon, they will send them off to the catheter lab to have an angioplasty or perhaps give them a drug called CPA. If they think they're not going to have a heart attack, we'll keep them around, observe them for a while, but eventually, they will send them home. So obviously, this is something you need to get right.

O'BRIEN: All right, so let get this straight, this is someone who goes to the emergency room with all the classic symptoms -- pain in the chest, tingling in the arm, all that stuff, but there could be a perfectly logical other reasons that would cause this and so you don't always know.

COHEN: Right and this test helps doctors predict more accurately who's the heart attack patient and who's not.

O'BRIEN: All right, so, what's next then? When do we start seeing this used widely?

COHEN: Well, the folks who are responsible for this test say it could be out in as soon as a year. However, they first need -- before it comes out commercially, they need to do bigger tests, because many times, things will pan out in a relatively small study, which this one was. It was 600 people. But sometimes when you do larger tests, it doesn't actually pan out.

And it's important to note one of the researchers who did this test is a patent holder on the test and could profit financially if it does do well.

O'BRIEN: Oh, OK, interesting. It's worth pointing out. Is there an easy, simple way, layperson's way to explain how it works?

COHEN: So that even you could understand it? Yes, we have the Miles test, and this passes. This is an easy way to explain it. Most of the us have plaque in our arteries, and sometimes it doesn't really matter. However, when there's an inflammatory process with the plaque, the plaque can grow and grow and grow, and can block the vessel, like you see here. What this blood test does is detect whether or not this inflammatory process is going on.

O'BRIEN: Looks like some galvanizing piping I took out of my house at one point or another.

COHEN: That's your artery, we took your artery.

O'BRIEN: That's a good analogy there, I think. All right, thank you very much, Elizabeth Cohen. And I did understand that, thank you.

COHEN: Oh, good. There you go.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired October 23, 2003 - 13:33   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's the leading cause of death in America, and now doctors may soon have a potent, new weapon in the fight against heart disease, and it's as simple as a blood test. Of course, it's never really as simple as that.
Elizabeth Cohen is here to give us the nuances of the story.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: If it were as simple as that, you wouldn't need me, right?

O'BRIEN: That's right. And we're glad you're here.

COHEN: Well, thank you.

O'BRIEN: So explain it, will you?

COHEN: Well, there is a lot of excitement about this test. Rarely actually have I heard quite this much excitement about a new test. What it is, is that when people go to the emergency room with chest pain, doctors have to figure out, are they having a heart attack, or perhaps about to have a heart attack, or is it perhaps, no big deal? And so they do a battery of tests to figure that out. This blood test would be an additional test on top of those other ones, and it's much more accurate. Take a look at these numbers -- the new test gives 95 percent accuracy at predicting heart attacks, whether or not the person's going to have a heart attack in the next six months. Current tests are only 50 percent accurate at predicting heart attacks.

Now it's very important that this diagnosis be made correctly in the emergency room, because if someone is going to have a heart attack soon, they will send them off to the catheter lab to have an angioplasty or perhaps give them a drug called CPA. If they think they're not going to have a heart attack, we'll keep them around, observe them for a while, but eventually, they will send them home. So obviously, this is something you need to get right.

O'BRIEN: All right, so let get this straight, this is someone who goes to the emergency room with all the classic symptoms -- pain in the chest, tingling in the arm, all that stuff, but there could be a perfectly logical other reasons that would cause this and so you don't always know.

COHEN: Right and this test helps doctors predict more accurately who's the heart attack patient and who's not.

O'BRIEN: All right, so, what's next then? When do we start seeing this used widely?

COHEN: Well, the folks who are responsible for this test say it could be out in as soon as a year. However, they first need -- before it comes out commercially, they need to do bigger tests, because many times, things will pan out in a relatively small study, which this one was. It was 600 people. But sometimes when you do larger tests, it doesn't actually pan out.

And it's important to note one of the researchers who did this test is a patent holder on the test and could profit financially if it does do well.

O'BRIEN: Oh, OK, interesting. It's worth pointing out. Is there an easy, simple way, layperson's way to explain how it works?

COHEN: So that even you could understand it? Yes, we have the Miles test, and this passes. This is an easy way to explain it. Most of the us have plaque in our arteries, and sometimes it doesn't really matter. However, when there's an inflammatory process with the plaque, the plaque can grow and grow and grow, and can block the vessel, like you see here. What this blood test does is detect whether or not this inflammatory process is going on.

O'BRIEN: Looks like some galvanizing piping I took out of my house at one point or another.

COHEN: That's your artery, we took your artery.

O'BRIEN: That's a good analogy there, I think. All right, thank you very much, Elizabeth Cohen. And I did understand that, thank you.

COHEN: Oh, good. There you go.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com