SensAheart: A New Pocket Device That Can Test for Heart Attacks by Mei Marcie

When someone is having a heart attack, time is critical in salvaging the heart muscle. The unfortunate part is sometimes the symptoms of a heart attack may not be severe and the patient doesn't realize it soon enough; other times, the hospital may take too long to get the patient tested. 

Emil Katz, founder and CEO of Novamed, a life-sciences company that makes medical products, developed a pocket device called SensAheart to make testing heart attacks faster and cheaper. SensAheart, the size of USB stick, involves placing a drop of blood on a testing strip, then applying a special liquid for the device to check reactions with HFABP and troponin (antibodies produced in a heart attack). 

• If two lines are generated in the strip (only five minutes for the test), it is a positive test and the patient should go to the hospital and get immediate treatment (compared to waiting in the general queue, then another few hours for hospital test).

• If the test is negative but symptoms persist, the patient should still consider going for a check and re-test. 

The device is currently available in Europe and Israel. Learn more about SensAheart via CNN.

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