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Singapore News
New research to help heart failure patients get faster treatment
By Claire Huang | Posted: 07 June 2010 1336 hrs
Photos 1 of 1
Video
New research to help heart failure patients get faster treatment
SINGAPORE: The day may come when all it takes to tell if a person is suffering from heart failure is blood. This will mean saving time and life.
One in five patients land in the hospital's emergency department due to breathlessness and chest pain. Of these, a quarter suffer from heart failure.
But preliminary tests like ECG can be time-consuming and inaccurate.
That's why the Cardiovascular Research Institute will be trying out a new blood test developed in New Zealand on some 1,000 patients.
Of these patients, the institute will choose half with symptoms of breathlessness while the other half will have had chest pains.
Professor Arthur Mark Richards, director, Cardiovascular Research Institute, National University Heart Centre, Singapore, said: "The target here in this lab would be to develop measurement methods for markers in the blood that are important in detecting heart problems of several different kinds. And not only detecting it but also giving an idea about how serious it is, what the outlook for that person is and also giving a measure of how well you're managing it and how well you're controlling it."
Its newly-appointed director said this could reduce the time taken by doctors to make a diagnosis by two to three hours.
If the research is successful, a prototype kit may be developed to provide a diagnosis in about 15 minutes.
The lifetime risk of developing heart failure is quite high.
Professor Richards added: "Middle-aged Singaporeans have a one in three chance that heart failure will be a problem for them some time in their remaining life.
“This is something to be avoided if you possibly can, because having been given a diagnosis of heart failure, your survival is clearly reduced over the following year or five years, even more severely so than some forms of cancer.
“So if you can prevent if from happening or detect it quickly and treat it quickly, then you stand a good chance of improving those people's quality of life in their lifetime and their survival time."
Professor Richards hopes results will be available within the next 18 months.
The institute is also working with six restructured hospitals to find out more about the different types of heart failures.
Professor Richards said the information gathered from the research can help doctors better manage treatment.
He said: "We'll be comparing what the outcomes are like for these people, how they respond to treatment, what their survival is like, how high their risk of coming back into the hospital might be, how their blood tests differ from one another, and how the structure of their hearts differ from one another.
“All this will be done with the aim of understanding particularly the diastolic or preserved contract or function type heart failure better and finding an improved treatment or improved management for it.”
Data gathered from the different ethnic groups in Singapore and New Zealand will be used to see if genetic and biomarker differences may emerge.
The institute is receiving some S$6 million for the first two years from the National Medical Research Council for the research projects.
Doctors said heart failure admission rates have been going up in Singapore.
From May 2009 to April this year, there were more than 4,000 admissions. Heart disease is the number two killer in Singapore right after cancer. - CNA/vm
Home ›
Singapore News
New research to help heart failure patients get faster treatment
By Claire Huang | Posted: 07 June 2010 1336 hrs
Photos 1 of 1
Video
New research to help heart failure patients get faster treatment
SINGAPORE: The day may come when all it takes to tell if a person is suffering from heart failure is blood. This will mean saving time and life.
One in five patients land in the hospital's emergency department due to breathlessness and chest pain. Of these, a quarter suffer from heart failure.
But preliminary tests like ECG can be time-consuming and inaccurate.
That's why the Cardiovascular Research Institute will be trying out a new blood test developed in New Zealand on some 1,000 patients.
Of these patients, the institute will choose half with symptoms of breathlessness while the other half will have had chest pains.
Professor Arthur Mark Richards, director, Cardiovascular Research Institute, National University Heart Centre, Singapore, said: "The target here in this lab would be to develop measurement methods for markers in the blood that are important in detecting heart problems of several different kinds. And not only detecting it but also giving an idea about how serious it is, what the outlook for that person is and also giving a measure of how well you're managing it and how well you're controlling it."
Its newly-appointed director said this could reduce the time taken by doctors to make a diagnosis by two to three hours.
If the research is successful, a prototype kit may be developed to provide a diagnosis in about 15 minutes.
The lifetime risk of developing heart failure is quite high.
Professor Richards added: "Middle-aged Singaporeans have a one in three chance that heart failure will be a problem for them some time in their remaining life.
“This is something to be avoided if you possibly can, because having been given a diagnosis of heart failure, your survival is clearly reduced over the following year or five years, even more severely so than some forms of cancer.
“So if you can prevent if from happening or detect it quickly and treat it quickly, then you stand a good chance of improving those people's quality of life in their lifetime and their survival time."
Professor Richards hopes results will be available within the next 18 months.
The institute is also working with six restructured hospitals to find out more about the different types of heart failures.
Professor Richards said the information gathered from the research can help doctors better manage treatment.
He said: "We'll be comparing what the outcomes are like for these people, how they respond to treatment, what their survival is like, how high their risk of coming back into the hospital might be, how their blood tests differ from one another, and how the structure of their hearts differ from one another.
“All this will be done with the aim of understanding particularly the diastolic or preserved contract or function type heart failure better and finding an improved treatment or improved management for it.”
Data gathered from the different ethnic groups in Singapore and New Zealand will be used to see if genetic and biomarker differences may emerge.
The institute is receiving some S$6 million for the first two years from the National Medical Research Council for the research projects.
Doctors said heart failure admission rates have been going up in Singapore.
From May 2009 to April this year, there were more than 4,000 admissions. Heart disease is the number two killer in Singapore right after cancer. - CNA/vm
