NEW ‘game-changing’ technology developed in Oxford could save thousands of lives each year by identifying patients at risk of deadly heart attacks years before they occur.

The new test uses chemical messengers sent out by plaques which accumulate in the arteries around the heart to detect the risk of future heart attacks.

Plaques consisting of fat, calcium and other substances found in the blood gather in the arteries restricting blood flow to the heart.

In a recent study of 3,900 patients, Oxford University scientists, supported by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, found the risk of having a fatal heart attack in the next five years was nine times higher in people with higher levels of chemical messengers.

Prof Charalambos Antoniades, who led the study at the University of Oxford’s Division of Cardiovascular Medicine said the new technology could transform care for those at risk.

He added: “For the first time we have a set of biomarkers, derived from a routine test that is already used in everyday clinical practice, that measures what we call the ‘residual cardiovascular risk’, currently missed by all risk scores and non-invasive tests.

“Knowing who is at increased risk for a heart attack could allow us to intervene early enough to prevent it.”

The new technology measures what researchers have called the Fat Attenuation Index (FAI), which proved a significantly more accurate indicator than other current methods.

Every year, more than 100,000 people die from a heart attack or related stroke in the UK yet there is no method for early detection of a potentially fatal build-up of plaque.

Professor Metin Avkiran, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, which funded the research, said the breakthrough ‘will save lives’.

He added: “Most heart scans are good at spotting blockages caused by large plaques, but not the smaller, high-risk plaques that are likely to rupture and cause a heart attack.

“This new technique could be a game changer - allowing doctors to spot those ‘ticking time bomb’ patients who are most at risk of a heart attack.”