Sensitive blood test may help ER docs rule out heart attack

A new, highly sensitive blood test may help doctors quickly rule out heart attack for almost two-thirds of people who seek emergency room treatment for chest pain, a new study suggests. Researchers said their findings could potentially reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and substantially lower health-care costs. "Until now, there were no quick ways to rule out a heart attack within the emergency department," said the study's lead author, Dr. Anoop Shah, from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. "Over the last two decades, the number of hospital admissions due to chest pain has tripled. The overwhelming majority of these patients do not have a heart attack," Shah said.