Blood Test Predicts Risk for Common Heart Condition

Scientists are developing a simple blood test to predict who is most at risk from the world’s most common inherited heart condition.

Millions of people worldwide have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a disease of the heart muscle where the wall of the heart becomes thickened. It is caused by a change in one or more genes adn mostly passed on through families.

Some feel fine most of the time and have few or no symptoms. But others can suffer complications, such as heart failure and abnormal heart rhythms, which can led to a cardiac arrest.

The problem is there is no cure. Doctors also do not know which patients with the genetic condition are most at risk from deadly complications.

But now a team of scientists from universities including Harvard and Oxford have found a way to forecast risk for people living with HCM.

the blood test could identify those patients most in danger of complications,enabling them to be monitored more closely or receive life-saving treatment.

In a landmark study,the team measured the levels of a protein,N-terminal Pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-Pro-BNP),in the blood of 700 HCM patients.

NT-Pro-BNP is released by the heart as part of normal pumping. But high levels are a sign the heart is working too hard.