Mayo Clinic offers blood test to predict adverse cardiovascular events in patients with coronary artery disease
The Mayo Clinic and Zora Biosciences have partnered to offer a blood test to predict adverse cardiovascular events in patients with coronary artery disease.
The test is available through Mayo Medical Laboratories, the Mayo Clinic’s reference laboratory that offers services to more than 5,000 healthcare organizations in more than 60 countries.
The test, which measures blood concentrations of plasma ceramides, is intended for patients whose coronary artery disease has not improved with treatment and for young patients with premature coronary artery disease.
The Mayo Clinic and Zora Biosciences said the test may help determine if treatment is necessary for individuals at intermediate risk of coronary artery disease based on the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association risk calculator.
“Plasma ceramides are promising biomarkers for the prediction of adverse [cardiovascular] events in either primary and/or secondary prevention,” Allan Jaffe, MD, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic, said in a news release. “The studies to date suggest that the signals observed presage events within the next five-year period. Risk conferred by plasma ceramides appears to be independent of other established and novel biomarkers, and there are preliminary indications that high ceramide concentrations can be modified by common lipid-lowering therapies.”
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.