Scientists have developed a blood test that can predict whether someone is at high risk of a heart attack, stroke, heart failure, or dying from one of these conditions within the next four years, with roughly twice the accuracy of existing risk scores.
The test is already available in the US, so it could be used to determine whether patients need additional drugs or not.
It could speed up the development of new cardiovascular drugs by giving a faster means of assessing whether drug candidates are working during clinical trials.
A more accurate snapshot of what someone's organs, tissues and cells are doing at any given moment is possible with the help of aprotein analysis.
Stephen Williams and his colleagues used machine learning to analyse thousands of genes in the blood of 22,849 people and identify a signature that could predict four years of heart attack, stroke, heart failure or death.
They found that their model was better than the risk prediction tools that used age, sex, race, medical history, cholesterol and blood pressure.
Williams' results were published in Science Translational Medicine.
In addition, the test could accurately evaluate risk in people who have previously suffered a cardiovascular event and are taking drugs to reduce their risk, which existing risk assessments struggle to do.
The tool is already being used in four health systems within the US, and is in talks about the possibility of introducing it to the UK.
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