Nanobiochip Diagnoses Heart Attacks

A diagnostic tool developed by scientists to detect heart attacks using a person's saliva is being tested in human trials.

A microchip sensor, the nanobiochip, processes the saliva and yields on-the-spot results. To obtain a saliva sample for the device, health care providers swab a patient's gums with a cotton-tipped stick. The saliva is transferred to the disposable diagnostic microchip. The microchip is then inserted into an analyzer and within a few minutes the saliva sample is checked and results delivered.

Nanobiochips deliver all the capabilities of a traditional laboratory but do not require expensive instrumentation to get results. Manufactured with techniques pioneered by the microelectronics industry, they are able to analyze large amounts of biomarker data at significantly lower cost than traditional tests.

The nanobiochip was developed at Rice University (Houston, TX, USA). It is being tested in human trials at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center (MEDVAMC; Houston, TX, USA) in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine (BCM; Houston, TX, USA). Over the next two years, samples from approximately 500 patients who come to the MEDVAMC emergency room with chest pain or heart attack-related symptoms will be collected for the trial.

"We find salivary tests, when combined with electrocardiograms (ECGs), can provide more accurate information than the ECG alone for patients with chest pain," John T. McDevitt, professor of chemistry and bioengineering at Rice said. "Saliva-based tests have the potential to quickly diagnose heart-attack victims as well as to find false alarms."

Chest pain brings about 5 million patients to U.S. emergency rooms each year, but 80 % of those patients are not suffering heart attacks. Blood test results can take anywhere from 90 minutes to three hours, and in many cases it may be 12 to 24 hours before patients know whether or not they had a heart attack.

Prof. McDevitt said that the new test could save lives, time, and money by allowing doctors to identify those suffering from a heart attack before administering a battery of costly tests.

Related Links:
Rice University
Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center
Baylor College of Medicine