Saliva test may fast track heart attack diagnosis, finds ESC study

The researchers then tested the processed and unprocessed saliva samples for cardiac troponin. "Since no test has been developed for use on saliva, we had to use commercially available tests intended for whole blood, plasma, or serum, and adjust them for saliva examination," said Dr. Westreich.

For patients, the researchers compared the results from the saliva samples (processed and unprocessed) with the blood samples. There was strong agreement between the blood findings and the processed saliva, but not saliva in its natural state. Some 84% of the processed saliva samples tested positive for troponin, compared to just 6% of the unprocessed saliva.

Among healthy participants, no cardiac troponin was detected in the processed and unprocessed saliva samples.

Dr. Westreich said: "This early work shows the presence of cardiac troponin in the saliva of patients with myocardial injury. Further research is needed to determine how long troponin stays in the saliva after a heart attack. In addition, we need to know how many patients would erroneously be diagnosed with heart attack and how many cases would be missed."

The next steps in this research are to expand the number of patients being studied and create a prototype for a cardiac troponin test using saliva. "This prototype will be tailor-made for processed saliva and is expected to be more accurate than using a blood test on saliva," said Dr. Westreich. "It will be calibrated to show positive results when saliva troponin levels are higher than a certain threshold and show a yes/no result like a pregnancy test."