A test developed in Ireland measures blood stickiness, which was not previously possible, writes ALISON JONES
A NEW BLOOD test could save lives by diagnosing heart disease earlier, thanks to technology developed by a team of scientists and doctors at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
The latest computer and imaging technology can now be used to check how easily a patient’s blood will clot. This information will help doctors to predict the risk of heart disease and reduce the chance of it progressing, explains research leader Dermot Kenny (pictured right), a professor in cardiovascular biology and the college’s director of its clinical research centre.
Cardiovascular disease causes more deaths in Ireland than any other disease, with more than 9,600 deaths each year, according to figures from the Irish Heart Foundation.
“The ability to test a patient’s blood, and the likelihood of the blood forming clots and blocking arteries, will allow us to better assess a patient’s specific risk of heart disease and prescribe medicines to minimise those risks,” explains Kenny.
“Platelets” in the blood are the key to this new blood test. “Platelets are the little parts in blood that cause it to clot,” says Kenny. “Clotting at the site of a wound is good, but the same thing happening in the heart is very bad.”
People with heart disease have blood vessels that have become thin or obstructed. Where blood vessels are thin there is a greater chance of platelets sticking together and forming a barrier that blocks the vessel. The patient would then need heart surgery to unblock or bypass the vessel, he says.
People with “stickier” platelets are more likely to experience vessel blockages. The new test is important as it gives a definitive measurement of platelet stick- iness, which was not previously possible. The platelet information would be added to current risk factors such as blood pressure, diet and smoking. “The accurate assessment of platelet function is central to our ability to diagnose the risk of heart disease early,” says Kenny. The test works by running blood through a thin channel, a bit like an artificial blood vessel. The channel has an obstruction in it that will change the flow of the blood.
Scientists can watch the behaviour of individual platelets near the obstruction, thanks to imaging methods developed with the help of experts from Nasa. This is “like watching a river, once it hits an obstruction – it starts rolling”, says Kenny.
The movement of individual platelets is tracked as they move along the channel. More than 100 pieces of information about the platelet movements are fed into a computer program in order to measure stickiness.
Six years of work has already gone into creating this technology, with financial support from Science Foundation Ireland. The project team includes many scientists and clinical specialists from Dublin City University, Beaumont Hospital and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
The platelet test can be performed with just a pinprick of blood. However the machinery currently used for the test is too unwieldy to be used in a doctor’s surgery and requires specialised knowledge to make it work.
The next step for this technology is to get it “into a system where it can be used routinely”, says Kenny.
Alison Jones is a British Science Association media fellow on placement with The Irish Times