By Robert Channick
The Chicago Tribune
EVANSTON, Ill. — A new technology has made its way into an Evanston emergency room that may help diagnose “silent” heart attacks, speeding up treatment and saving lives.
The test is designed to reveal previously invisible blockages within minutes and is an evolution of the 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) -- the standard test for identifying heart attacks.
“We are using it on people who come to the emergency room complaining of chest pain, and the normal 12-lead ECG doesn’t show it, and we highly expect that they are having a heart attack,” said Dr. Shahriar Dadkhah, director of cardiology research at St. Francis Hospital.
Rolled out in about two dozen hospitals nationwide, the 80-lead Prime ECG features a disposable vest. Information is fed into a portable machine that translates signals into a color-coded map of the heart.
“It’s picking up more serious heart attacks and it’s picking them up faster, because it’s seeing the entire heart,” said Paul Curley, vice president of marketing for Heartscape Technologies, a Maryland company that launched the Prime ECG last year.
Each year, about 1.1 million Americans suffer a heart attack, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. About 40 percent of those heart attacks are fatal, with half of the deaths occurring within one hour of the symptoms, making speedy treatment crucial.
Although there are other methods of diagnosing heart attacks, including blood tests that identify chemical markers, none are as fast as an ECG, which is normally completed within 10 minutes. Non-invasive and without requiring radiation, a graphic record of electrical activity reveals full blockage heart attacks requiring immediate intervention, usually stents inserted to prop open arteries.
Those diagnosed with less serious blockage are typically admitted and receive intervention within two days. “One of four of these lower-risk chest pain patients have the higher-risk heart attack, and Prime is going to identify those patients,” Curley said.
The machine costs about $45,000 and the disposable vests run about $200 each, a sizable investment in new technology. With units being developed for use in ambulances, Curley is optimistic the 80-lead ECG will become the standard emergency heart attack test.
Dadkhah agrees. “I have no doubt in my mind that by 2010, every hospital will have an 80-lead ECG,” Dadkhah said.
Other experts are less enthusiastic about the prospects for widespread adoption, particularly in the current economic climate.
“I believe that their estimations of our ability to recognize more heart attacks is inflated to some degree,” said Dr. David Cooke, a cardiologist at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield and past president of the American Heart Association’s Midwest affiliate. “If you look at it statistically, the advantage is small.”
St. Saint Francis has used its Prime ECG about a dozen times since acquiring the technology in late May. Although it has yet to identify a silent heart attack, its ability to confirm a less serious diagnosis has already proved its worth for Dadkhah and a number of patients who avoided costly hospital stays.
“It also has a value to rule out heart attack,” Dadkhah said.
Copyright 2009 Chicago Tribune Company