Keyword: heart research

A new test has been developed in Turku, Finland, that helps in separating heart attack patients from those whose cardiac troponin values are elevated due to renal insufficiency. Blood sample tests for cardiac troponins are an important cornerstone in the diagnostics of heart attack, but the result may be elevated also due to other transient or chronic conditions, such as renal insufficiency, atrial fibrillation or strenuous physical exercise. The new test may help in identifying myocardial infarction (MI) faster and more specifically and thus improve the treatment of MI patients.

A Finnish study coordinated by the Research Centre of Applied and Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Turku shows that exposure to cardiovascular risk factors, such as high blood pressure, elevated serum cholesterol, and obesity, from childhood to midlife are associated with poor cognitive performance in midlife. Importantly, the worse the cardiovascular risk factor profile and the higher the number of the risk factors was, the poorer cognitive performance was observed.