Contrary to the
condition's name, heart failure doesn't
mean the heart has stopped pumping - it's just not working at full strength. It
can often be managed with medications and lifestyle changes, but its
progression needs to be monitored closely. Now scientists have developed a new
test strip that could potentially allow patients to do this at home for the
first time. Their study appears in the journal ACS
Nano.
In the U.S., nearly 6 million people live with heart failure,
and about 1 million hospitalizations occur each year are related to the
condition, according to the American Heart Association. Closely tracking the
condition after diagnosis is important for adjusting treatment and preventing
emergency room visits. Antigens called ST2 and BNP are good indicators of heart
failure and how it's progressing. But currently, analyzing the levels of these
biomarkers requires both trained personnel and sophisticated lab equipment.
Feng Xu, Min Lin and colleagues wanted to devise a simple test to enable
doctors and patients to carry out the same analysis at the office or at home.
The researchers developed a paper-based test that requires only
a small blood sample of 10 microliters. A blue dot glows on the strip if ST2 is
present in the sample, and a green dot glows if it contains BNP. The colors'
intensities increase with concentration, which indicates a person's heart
failure is likely becoming worse. A smartphone app can analyze the readout and
send the results to the patient's doctor, who can adjust the patient's
treatment accordingly. Testing 38 serum samples from people with heart failure
showed that the paper test closely matched conventional techniques.
The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural
Science Foundation of China, the International Science & Technology
Cooperation Program of China, the National Instrumentation Program (China), the
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and the Open Funding
Project of Key Laboratory of Space Nutrition and Food Engineering Laboratory.
Article: Household Fluorescent Lateral
Flow Strip Platform for Sensitive and Quantitative Prognosis of Heart Failure
Using Dual-Color Upconversion Nanoparticles, Feng Xu, Min Lin et al., ACS
Nano, doi: 10.1021/acsnano.7b02466, published online 8 May 2017.
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