Heart Disease is one of the big three issues of the western world. Along with cancer and diabetes it makes up a good proportion of diseases in the first world and is one of the biggest killers. The problem with treating this condition is that the danger, which comes in the form of a heart attack or coronary arrest, is very hard if not impossible to predict. I’m sure we’ve all heard stories of people going in for a physical, being proclaimed fit and healthy and then have a heart attack the very next day. Though it’s true this happens less and less as medical technology becomes better and better, it’s still a major issue which has a lot of people concerned.
As I’m sure you can imagine, the ‘holy grail’ of research has long been the ability to predict an imminent heart attack. With pretty much all of the nastier conditions we can contract today, being forewarned is the best way to ensure your ongoing health. Things like cancer and heart disease are much easier to treat when you get them early and become much more dangerous as the conditions progress.
In a recent study scientists have been working with patients who’re known to be suffering or at risk of suffering from multiple heart attacks. They’ve been looking at the cells which are carried around the body in the blood and determined that the circulating endothelial cells of those patients of heart attacks were far larger than normal and often malformed. The hope is that, after further study, they’ll be able to use these cells as bio-markers to determine the likelihood of a recurring heart-attack and give a good indication of just when that might happen!
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