A simple urine test could predict heart disease

LONDON - A simple urine test could predict if you are a candidate for heart disease — years before the symptoms show up.

Scientists at Glasgow University are using urine samples to measure protein levels that would indicate heart problems, dispensing with the need for blood and needles.

It could save thousands of lives by detecting the arterial damage that can lead to heart attacks, angina, heart failure and other coronary conditions.

Those in the early stages of coronary artery disease would then be treated to prevent them going on to suffer a heart attack, reports the Daily Mail.

The test could be available in as little as two years, according to the Journal of Hypertension.

The British team has identified more than 200 such proteins and worked out whether they rise or fall as clogged arteries narrow. They worked with researchers from the US, Australia, Germany and Denmark on the results.

They then tested the urine of 138 men and women, around half of whom had diseased arteries. The test was almost 90 percent accurate.

Prof Harald Mischak, of Glasgow University’s Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, then tested people being treated for high blood pressure.

Their results also changed as health improved, suggesting the kit could be used to monitor how well cardiac drugs are working.

Prof Mischak said: “If you intervene with drugs and the intervention is successful, they would never experience the disease.”