The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Abbott Laboratories' Architect Stat High Sensitivity Troponin-I blood test to help detect heart attacks faster and more accurately.
The Abbott Park, Ill.-based medical-device maker said the test measures very low levels of troponin, which are proteins that are released from the heart and have elevated levels in the blood when the heart muscle is damaged. The test allows doctors to detect or rule out a heart attack in patients within two to four hours of admission. The test can detect heart attacks faster and more accurately than contemporary troponin tests, and may be especially beneficial for women who tend to have lower troponin levels than men.
Abbott said the blood test may be sold in the U.S. for use on the company's fully automated Architect analyzer.
