The test measures a protein called troponin that’s released when heart cells are damaged during a heart attack, BBC News reported.
In their study of more than 2,000 patients with suspected heart attack, U.K. researchers found that the test could detect troponin at levels four times lower than the standard blood test.As a result, one-third more patients were diagnosed with heart attack, which halved their risk of dying of a heart attack within a year, BBC News reported.
The study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.