Researchers at Rice University have developed a diagnostic tool to detect heart attacks using a person’s saliva. The technology is being tested at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center (MEDVAMC) in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston. John T. McDevitt, PhD, professor of chemistry and bioengineering at Rice, and his team at Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative, developed a microchip sensor called the Nano-Bio-Chip that analyzes saliva and looks for cardiac biomarkers of injury implicated in the heart attack. “We find salivary tests, when combined with electrocardiograms (ECG), can provide more accurate information than the ECG alone for patients with chest pain,” McDevitt explains.<\/p>\n
Typically, when a heart attack occurs, emergency medical technicians or hospital staff use an ECG machine to review heart activity. If the ECG is abnormal, the patient is immediately moved to an area to be treated. Unfortunately, ECGs fail to correctly diagnose about one-third of patients having a heart attack. These patients are monitored carefully in the emergency room using additional blood tests to look for certain biomarkers to verify whether a heart attack has occurred. “We follow this same procedure but include the saliva test to determine whether salivary biomarkers will perform similar to blood markers in diagnosing a heart attack,” says Biykem Bozkurt, MD, professor of medicine at BCM and chief of cardiology at the MEDVAMC. “It is anticipated that saliva will be an alternative or complementary technique to blood drawing for early diagnosis of heart attacks — ultimately, for testing in the ambulance before arrival in the emergency room.”<\/p>\n
To obtain a saliva sample for the Nano-Bio-Chip, health care providers swab a patient’s gums with a cotton-tipped stick. The saliva is transferred to the disposable diagnostic microchip, which is then inserted into an analyzer. Within a few minutes, the saliva sample is checked and results delivered. Manufactured with techniques pioneered by the microelectronics industry, the chips have the potential to analyze large amounts of biomarker data at significantly lower cost than traditional tests, McDevitt says.<\/p>\n