Heart failure test is something to spit at

A saliva test that detects the early stages of heart failure could in coming years be available at pharmacies.

A saliva test that detects the early stages of heart failure could in coming years be available at pharmacies, prompting those at risk to seek lifestyle and medication interventions.

The Melbourne start-up ESN Cleer developed the saliva test in conjunction with scientists from the Queensland University of Technology. The test, in a stick-like handheld device, detects biomarkers in saliva that indicate early-risk heart failure, says ESN Cleer’s medical adviser, cardiologist Andrew Coats.

Scientists developed the test by analysing biomarkers present in people with heart failure and comparing them with healthy individuals.

“Initially they analysed a whole range of potential markers,” Dr Coats said. “You can look for hundreds of thousands of biochemical signals, and they could separate patients with heart failure from patients without heart failure, and then ­patients at risk of developing heart failure.

“It’s exploring the body’s hugely complicated way of responding to illness, and picking up biomarkers that allow an accurate prediction of the near future.

“There’s sort of a series of complex signals you can measure. The cells respond to stress, they stimulate messenger proteins that generate polypeptides hormones and other chemicals.”

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Australia, but heart failure usually remains undetected until an individual experiences angina or a heart attack.

“There are many, many treatments for heart failure once people have a diagnosis,” Dr Coats said. “But there’s been much less effort into accurate prediction of when someone will get it. Apart from obvious factors like high blood pressure, diabetes and coronary disease, we haven’t got anything that predicts when heart failure is about to hit you.

“(It) … can sneak up on you. You can get a reduction in heart function that might cause shortness of breath or tightness, but many people put it down to age or just not being fit. It’s only when it reaches a critical threshold … that the penny drops … if we could pick it up a week, two weeks, a month earlier, we could start getting the many effective treatments before the person has to go through a life-threatening episode.”

ESN Cleer is working to commercialise the saliva test, and will then seek regulatory approval for the device.