New test helps diagnose heart attack patients in minutes

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Created on Wednesday, 23 March 2011 08:32

Lindsay, March 23, 2011

Every minute counts when treating heart attack victims, so decreasing the time spent waiting for test results can be life-saving. The i-STAT device provides this opportunity at Ross Memorial Hospital (RMH). Beginning this week, RMH is trialing the i-STAT system in its Emergency department.

The i-STAT system involves a hand-held device which measures the troponin level in a patient’s blood with lab-quality results. Troponin is a chemical that is released in the blood when a person is experiencing a heart attack. Using conventional lab tests, it can take up to an hour to get results; with the i-STAT system, the physician gets the result in approximately 7-10 minutes. 

The sooner physicians are able to diagnose that a patient has had a heart attack, the sooner treatment can begin, reducing the severity of damage to the patient’s heart muscle. 

“With the i-STAT System, we can offer patients faster testing and, potentially, faster treatment when every minute counts,” stated Dr. Leon Lerm, Chief of Emergency Medicine at RMH. “This will not only build on our Emergency department’s efficiency, but also enhance our patient care.”

RMH is the first hospital in the Central East LHIN to trial this Canadian product. Funding for the trial was provided by the CE LHIN through the Pay for Performance initiative. This type of funding enables hospitals to implement projects in an effort to reduce patient wait times.