用血液測試可以檢查隱藏性心臟病
A cheap blood test can predict which apparently healthy patients are at high risk of a heart attack. Experts say it could be better than just checking blood pressure and cholesterol to assess heart risk.
一項花費不貴的血液檢查可以預示哪些表面看起來健康的患者其實處於心臟病發作的高風險下。專家表示，這可能比通過檢查血壓和膽固醇來評估心臟風險的效果更好。So far, they have tested it only on men, but the British Heart Foundation-funded researchers say it should work in women too.
到目前爲止，他們只測試了男性，但英國心臟基金會資助的研究人員稱，女性應該同樣適用。The test, called troponin, looks for a protein released when the heart muscle is damaged.
這項血液測試本質是尋找血液中一種叫做肌鈣蛋白的蛋白質。
Doctors already use the same blood test to help diagnose men and women who they suspect have just had a heart attack.
醫生已經使用相同的血液測試來幫助診斷那些他們懷疑剛剛有過心臟病發作的男性和女性。In their study, Prof Nicholas Mills and colleagues found men who had higher levels of troponin in their blood were more likely to have a heart attack or die of heart disease up to 15 years later.
在他們的研究中，尼古拉送·米爾斯及其同事發現，血液中肌鈣蛋白水平較高的男性更可能在15年後出現心臟病發作或因心臟病死亡。
But putting some of these high-risk men on preventive treatment, such as cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, lowered their risk as well as their troponin levels.
但如果在這些心臟病發病率高的男性身上採取些預防治療的話，如讓他們服用他汀類藥物這樣的降膽固醇藥物，就會降低他們血液中的肌鈣蛋白水平同時就能降低他們的心臟病發病率。The 3,300 men in the study had high cholesterol but no history of heart disease. The scientists now plan to do more research involving women too.
該項研究中的3300名男性患有高膽固醇，但沒有心臟病史。科學家們現在計劃在更多的女性身上做這項血液測試。Prof David Newby, one of the authors of the study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, said: "Troponin is almost like a barometer of heart health. If it creeps up, that's bad and your risk of heart problems increases. If it goes down, that's good.”
戴維·紐比y教授曾在《美國心臟病學會雜誌》上發表過研究成果，他說：“肌鈣蛋白幾乎就像一個心臟健康的晴雨表，如果它增長，這預示着不好，預示着你的心臟出問題的風險在增加。如果它下降，那這就是好的。”Dr Tim Chico, a cardiologist from Sheffield University, said: "The problem with heart disease is that it remains very difficult to detect the early signs in people without symptoms, so these findings may provide a way to help identify people at risk.”
來自謝菲爾德大學的心臟病學家蒂姆·奇科博士說：“心臟病的問題是，在沒有顯現出症狀的人們身上很難判斷心臟疾病的存在，因此這項血液測試能幫助識別哪些人處於心臟病發作的危險中。”"Nevertheless, the best way to treat heart disease is to prevent it in the first place, and this is why a healthy diet, regular physical activity, not smoking, and maintaining a healthy weight and blood pressure is so important."
“但是，治療心臟病最好的方法還是要預防它，這就是爲什麼健康的飲食，定期的運動，不吸菸，保持健康的體重和血壓是如此重要的原因了。”
