London, UK, Dec 6, 2002 – Metabometrix Limited, an Imperial College spinout biotechnology and diagnostics company holds the rights to a novel type of atherosclerosis test. This only needs a few drops of blood to measure the magnetic properties of its components using high frequency radio waves in a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer. These responses are then analysed using an advanced computer programme capable of detecting abnormal patterns of signals that are associated with heart disease. The test has arisen from collaborative work with Dr. David Grainger at the University of Cambridge and carried out at Imperial College, London, in Professor Jeremy Nicholson’s department.

This test is based on a new science, called metabonomics and can be used to check for coronary artery disease, using minimally invasive procedures. The new test offers distinct advantages over other procedures as it can be carried out on standard preparations from blood. It needs no specialist preparations, is non invasive, is much cheaper than alternatives and is safer than the alternative angiographic procedure. Metabonomics involves the elucidation of changes in metabolite patterns associated with drug toxicity or disease processes based on the measurement of metabolites in biofluids and tissues from patients and various models of disease.

This blood test for heart disease also only takes a few minutes, and its development paves the way for a new generation of tests to give advance warning of a wide range of diseases. The same technique - which looks for overall changes in blood chemistry, could be developed and adapted for other major diseases such as cancer or arthritis, for example. Professor Jeremy Nicholson, Chief Scientist of Metabometrix, comments “This new test could completely revolutionise heart medicine and save hundreds of lives every year by warning in time those at risk to seek treatment or make changes to their way of life. At present the specialist equipment needed for the analysis can easily be housed in most hospital environments and instrument manufacturers such as Bruker GmbH have already built machines that could be used in this way using the new mathematical processing methods developed through Metabometrix.” Full clinical trials of the artherosclerosis test have started at Papworth Hospital, Britain’s leading centre for cardiac medicine, and if the results are confirmed, the test could be available to hospitals in less than two years from now.

See also: BBC News, London Times, Daily Telegraph