Doctors can easily tell when someone is having a heart attack,
but one thing they can’t do is predict an attack before it
happens. Even patients who come in for stress tests and get a
clean bill of health often end up back in the hospital with a
heart attack just days later. But researchers say that may soon
change, thanks to a study that used a blood test to detect
certain cells that are sloughed off from weakened blood vessel
walls. The cells are called circulating endothelial cells (CECs)
and they herald the first stages of a heart attack, according to
Dr. Eric Topol, chief academic officer for Scripps Health and
lead author of the study published in the journal Science
Translational Medicine. Heart experts currently believe that
heart attacks start days before a clot actually forms and blocks
the flow of blood to the heart, says Topol. The first stages of
a heart attack involve a weakening or erosion of the blood
vessel walls, which then attracts inflammatory cells that damage
the endothelial cells lining