Thousands to get lifesaving £5 heart test: NHS given go-ahead for breakthrough treatment.
A simple heart attack test that could save thousands of lives is due to be rolled out on the NHS within months.
Costing as little as £5, the test detects small increases in a protein released when heart muscle is damaged.
As many as 50,000 patients a year are wrongly sent home from hospital with a diagnosis such as indigestion or back pain because current methods do not pick up that they have had a heart attack.
But trials of the highly sensitive new test show it identifies twice as many ‘silent’ heart attacks as existing tools.
Now the NHS watchdog has recommended that it should be routinely used in hospitals, where it can be carried out in accident and emergency departments and gives a fast result.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2633073/Simple-20-test-heart-attacks-save-thousands-womens-lives-year-available-NHS-months.html#ixzz32CxxnGgN
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