Speeding up this detection process is what a University of Central Florida researcher and alumnus of the University of Maryland is working on with the help of a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a rapid heart attack detection device.
“Our goal here is to basically remove that guess work and give first responders, EMTs and hospitals the ability to go in, take a small blood sample and confirm that such an event has indeed taken place,” says Parag Banerjee, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at UCF and principal investigator of the research. He graduated in 2011 with a PhD in materials science and engineering from UMD’s College Park campus.
While tests for heart attacks currently exist, they are slow and require specially trained personnel. Since heart attacks prevent blood from bringing oxygen to the heart, the faster a heart attack can be diagnosed, the quicker the blood flow can be restored, preventing further damage to the heart and potentially saving a person’s life. Delayed treatment of heart attacks could occur if they are misdiagnosed as a less serious medical problem, such as heart burn or a panic attack.