Soon, sensors that can track heart-attack damage

In what could revolutionise the treatment of heart patients, scientists have developed tiny implantable magnetic sensors which they say can accurately indicate the severity of a cardiac attack.

Developed by a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the sensors can even read the severity of a heart attack days after the damage happened.

These sensors, the researchers said, could soon be used to monitor people at high risk of having a heart attack, the NewScientist reported.

According to scientists, following a heart attack, some biomarkers, unique proteins released by heart cells as they die, remain in the blood.

Some hang around for a day, while others remain for a week. So a blood sample drawn days after a suspected heart attack contains only a partial collection of these proteins, complicating diagnosis.

To examine this theory, the MIT researchers used three disc-shaped magnetic sensors implanted under the skin of a mouse and tracked the total amount of biomarkers released over a 72-hour period following an induced heart attack.