Developing a Diagnostic Blood Test for Acute Aortic Dissection

Project Overview

Currently, CT scans are the most specific diagnostic tool for Acute Aortic Dissection (AAD), but their extensive use for non-specific chest pain is impractical due to high radiation exposure and resource demands. There is a critical need for a blood test to diagnose AAD, similar to those used for heart attacks.

Only 3% of CT scans for AAD yield positive results, indicating a significant waste of resources.

To date, blood test technologies for AAD have been imprecise and unable to distinguish AAD from heart attacks accurately. However, recent advances suggest a promising solution. All cells release DNA fragments into the blood under stress, which can be sampled to diagnose diseases. This technology has been successfully used in cancer diagnosis and prenatal testing in the UK. Dr Tian Zhao and his team has adapted this technology to monitor heart disease and preliminary results from blood samples of AAD patients showed distinct signatures compared to heart attack patients, indicating the potential for a new diagnostic blood test.

This project will analyse blood samples from AAD patients and compare them to samples from heart attack patients. Confirming a unique diagnostic signature could lead to the development of an accurate biomarker test, improving AAD diagnosis and saving lives.