A simple blood test can predict who is at highest risk to develop heart problems and determine life expectancy, according to a new study.
Researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Murray, Utah, and scientists at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston collaborated on a study using complete blood count risk score, a tool that uses the information in a simple blood test to identify those who will most likely develop heart problems in the future and to determine their life expectancy.
According to Benjamin Horne, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute, physicians have used the complete blood count method for years, but they did not fully understand all of its components and potential to identify life expectancy.
"Physicians can now provide better care using the [complete blood count] risk score as a standard method to assess whether patients may have future health problems that lead to death," Horne said in a statement. "Among apparently healthy individuals, this risk score can help physicians identify which patients have higher risk, as well as who they should focus further time and effort."
In the study, researchers used "CBC lab testing information gathered as part of the JUPITER Trial, a randomized clinical trial of a cholesterol-lowering drug, Rosuvastatin, led by Harvard cardiologist Paul M. Ridker, MD," according to a press release.
The Jupiter trial followed up with its 17,000 participants in 26 countries for up to five years.
When the Harvard team of researchers evaluated the Intermountain-derived CBC risk score among JUPITER trial participants, they found it to be a powerful tool to predict death.
Researchers individuals' with a lower risk score on the JUPITER trials were unlikely to die, while those with risk scores "in the middle range" had more than 50 percent higher risk of death.
The Researchers concluded that people with highest complete blood risk scores were twice as likely to die than those with low risk scores. The method gives physicians confidence in identifying low-risk individuals who don't need as much attention or costly testing, Horne added.
The method is an effective and inexpensive tool.
"We now have a standardized way of assessing the risk of mortality for all individuals, not just ones with a history of heart diseases," Horne said. "One of the beauties of this score is it uses clinically familiar, standardized medical information already in electronic format."
