New Blood Test Better Identifies Heart Failure Pati...( Study highlights: - A blood te...),Health

Study highlights:

- A blood test recently approved for use in Europe identified the sickest heart failure patients better than tests currently used in the United States.

- The new blood test also predicted the 90-day mortality in these patients, which should allow healthcare providers to focus attention appropriately, both in and outside the hospital.

NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new blood test identifies the sickest heart failure patients better than tests now used in emergency departments, researchers reported at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2008. Results of the Mid-Regional pro-Adrenomedullin (proADM) versus BNP and NTproBNP as Prognosticator in Heart Failure Patients: Results of the BACH Multinational Trial were presented as a late-breaking clinical trial.

"The ability to predict the sickest patients is of paramount importance to emergency physicians and critical care cardiologists," said Stefan D. Anker, M.D., Ph.D., co-principal investigator of the study and professor of cardiology and cachexia (malnutrition and wasting in the context of disease) research at Campus Virchow-Klinkum (Virchow Hospital) of the Charite Medical School, Berlin, Germany.

"These patients deserve the most aggressive interventions and warrant close surveillance. Biomarkers that can help the physician identify these patients can improve the patients' quality of life and help direct resources and hospital therapies where they are needed the most," he said.

In the trial, researchers followed 1,641 patients from 15 investigational centers around the globe, including eight from the United States, who experienced difficulty breathing upon arrival at the emergency department.

BACH is the first randomized comparison of two tests considered the gold standard for evaluating possible heart failure patients in the emergency setting versus the new test, approved for use in the European Union as of Oct
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