Deaths from heart disease peak in December and January, US database reveals

'Tis the season… for a heart attack? According to Dr. Keith Churchwell, associate director of the Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, a US database of 53 million deaths occurring between 1973 and 2001 reveals that deaths from heart disease peak in December and January, with spikes on Christmas and New Year's Day.

There are many theories as to why this is the case, ranging from the consumption of richer foods and more alcohol during this time of year, to the seasonal rise in emotional stress. Dr. Yahia Gawad, CEO of CardioGenics, is more concerned with how to diagnose them as quickly as possible.

When it comes to cardiac events and survival, the key factors for a successful recovery are: time to diagnosis, accuracy of diagnosis and appropriate clinical management. The slogan of "time is muscle" , that is heart muscle, is posted on the doors of every chest pain clinic in North America.

Founded in 1997 with a vision to develop and commercialize innovative point-of-care (POC) products, CardioGenics, led by cardiac diagnostic test pioneer Dr. Gawad, has created improved cardiac diagnostic testing that boasts faster results and better accuracy at reduced cost to the patient and caregiver.

For patients suffering from a heart attack, every minute counts, yet the average time from the onset of chest pain to the receipt of ER medical attention is 3.2 hours. More shocking still, the average turnaround time of lab-based test results is 2.8 hours, with the minimum time to detect a heart attack using today's lab-based immunodiagnostics a whopping 4.5 hours from symptom onset.

"During the holidays, hospitals may be short-staffed, slowing the time even more to diagnose a heart attack," says Dr. Gawad. "CardioGenics' QL Care Analyzer will be very beneficial to hospitals during this time because it can reduce heart attack diagnosis to fifteen minutes."

In just six steps, the QL Care Analyzer provides printed medical lab-quality results in less than fifteen minutes. Capable of delivering test results in the ER, doctor's office or EMS vehicle, the single-use cartridge QL Care® Analyzer is the size of a portable CD player, features an intuitive user interface touch screen and is capable of storing patient data for up to five thousand individuals.

"We will be submitting the QL Care Analyzer to the FDA in twelve to fourteen months," says Dr. Gawad. "Once it is approved , we think it will have a profound effect on acute cardiac care diagnsotics, not just during the holiday season but all year round."