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Swedish scientists perfect heart disease tests

TT/Claudia Rodas
TT/Claudia Rodas - [email protected]
Swedish scientists perfect heart disease tests

Two Swedish professors have proven that a new type of blood test is more effective in diagnosing a tendency towards heart disease than cholesterol levels tests.

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Ingmar Jungner and Göran Walldius have been fighting for nearly 20 years to change the way blood lipids – fats – are measured when assessing heart disease. Until now, most assessments are based on cholesterol values, but the professors’ research indicates that other blood fats are even more important for a diagnosis.

The professors used the blood values of 175,000 Swedes, and besides measuring cholesterol, they also measured so-called apolipoproteins A1 and B which act as transporters for different fats in our blood.

Measuring the median value between these two was far more accurate in diagnosing cardiovascular disease than simply measuring cholesterol values.

This week, renowned medical journal The Lancet published the world’s largest heart health investigation, Interheart, which studied 27000 patients in 52 countries. Their study confirmed the Swedish pioneers´ research.

Measuring the blood’s protein content gives a 54 percent more accurate diagnosis than simple cholesterol tests.

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