20-minute test 'to reveal heart disease'

A simple blood test could help dramatically cut the number of people dying from heart disease and strokes.

The 20-minute test would allow doctors to treat patients for the disease years before it becomes potentially fatal.

Heart disease experts said today it was a major breakthrough in the battle against heart disease, Britain's number one killer.

Cardiovascular disease kills over 238,000 people in Britain every year and costs the NHS over £7billion a year to treat. The current obesity epidemic is also believed to have led to an increase in the number of sufferers.

To take the test, patients simply place the tip of their finger on a sensor that uses radio waves to measure the flow and pressure of blood.

Tiny changes in the flow can reveal the health of the vessels, researchers at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota discovered. They say this reading will point to future heart health.

"Problems in our extremities, such as the finger, are often a clear sign the same problem is occurring in the heart," said Dr Amir Lerman, who developed the new test.

"We hope this test could spot any problems several years before there actually are any problems. The work is at an early stage, but our goal is to produce something that could be in every doctor's surgery, and is a part of every check up. We believe that could happen within two years if all goes well."

The fingertip sensor detects tiny abnormalities in the endothelium, a lining in our blood vessels that protects them from damage. Experts believe that if this lining is damaged, then over time that will lead to arteries becoming damaged. By comparing results from the sensor with results from surgical testing, researchers were able to "tune" the sensor to spot these tiny changes in the blood vessel lining.

It is hoped a version of the sensor could be produced cheaply enough for all surgeries to buy.

The researchers are currently conducting larger-scale trials of the device.

British experts today backed the breakthrough. June Davison from the British Heart Foundation said: "This could let us medicate people who do not yet have any symptoms. It's potentially a huge step forward.

"Potentially every patient could take this test when they visit their doctor. If we know there are problems coming up, we can advise on lifestyle and diet changes."

She added: "Currently often the first that people know of a heart problem is when they experience a severe symptom like a heart attack. With this early warning, we can aggresively treat people we know are at risk. This research is still at an early stage, but it has an awful lot of potential."