Simple blood test could spot patients most at risk of dying from heart failure, study suggests

A simple blood test could help identify patients at the most immediate risk of dying from heart failure, a study suggests.

Those with the highest levels of a specific protein were 50 percent more likely to die of a heart complication during the three-year study period compared to those with lower levels.

Experts said the findings suggest that measuring levels of neuropeptide Y (NPY) could help predict how heart failure is likely to progress.

This can then be used to identify those most at risk and tailor treatments to slow the deadly disease, which occurs when the heart can’t pump blood around the body as well as it should.

More than one million people are currently estimated to be living with heart failure in the UK, with around 200,000 new diagnoses each year.

Oxford University researchers used survey data from more than 800 adults at various stages of heart failure. The results were published in the European Journal of Heart Failure.

The subjects were measured for levels of natriuretic peptide (BNP), a hormone currently used to diagnose heart failure, along with NPY.

Nerves in the heart release NPY in response to extreme stress, which can trigger dangerous heart rhythms.

This can cause the smallest blood vessels in the heart muscle to close, causing the heart to work harder and causing blood vessels that go to the heart to constrict.

Researchers found that about a third of the group had high levels of NPY and were 50 percent more likely to die from a heart complication during the three-year follow-up period.

They suggest that measuring NPY along with BNP can be used to help diagnose those who are at the most immediate risk.

This would allow doctors to decide who might benefit from treatments such as an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), which detects and stops irregular heartbeats, called arrhythmias.

Neil Herring, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford, said: ‘The results of this research are an exciting new development.

Next, we will investigate whether measuring very high levels of neuropeptide Y can affect whether patients can receive life-saving treatment such as ICDs.’ He added that the blood tests could be introduced within five years.

The British Heart Foundation said: “This new research suggests that a new, cheap and simple blood test could help us in the future to see more precisely which patients with heart failure are most at risk of early death.”