Dina Melki MD, PhD

Dr. Dina Melki of Karolinska University Hospital’s cardiology clinic in Stockholm has examined a new method of quickly excluding a myocardial infarction or other serious coronary disease and presented it in her doctoral thesis. By combining the results of new sensitive assays for blood levels of troponin T (a substance released from the heart during a heart attack) with a risk-score system that takes into account the patient’s medical history, age, and ECG, research doctors have achieved to assertively rule out serious acute coronary disease in 60% percent of the patients within their first two hours of arrival at the hospital. Dr. Melki is confident her innovative method improves current processes, lowers risks, and saves hospital resources with 10 to 20 percent of chest pain sufferers able to go home instead of needing to be kept under observation.