R & D Excellence: Heart Attack Prevention by Identification of Vulnerable Patients

Coronary heart disease is a growing problem. For example, 1,263,000 men and 915,000 women with coronary heart disease were discharged from hospitals in 1998. From 1979 to 1998, these discharges increased about 25 percent for men and 26 percent for women. Americans at high risk for a heart attack are too often not identified, and in consequence do not receive sufficiently aggressive treatment. Studies conclusively show that lowering the level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol can reduce the short-term risk for heart disease by as much as 40 percent. Treatment may lower long term risk (the risk beyond 10 years) even more. Last year the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) issued major new clinical practice guidelines on the prevention and management of high cholesterol in adults. C-reactive protein (CRP) is also elevated in many heart disease patients, particularly those with dangerously unstable plaque. Against this background, we now propose a new rapid, innovative method of serum analysis based on multidimensional spectroscopy with the potential to increase the accuracy of lipoprotein profiles and dramatically improve the cost-effectiveness and availability of lipoprotein screening.