Patent of the Month – September 2024

Predicting risk of cardiovascular events within a five-year period

A protein biomarker discovery and clinical diagnostic company based in the United States has provided a solution in the form of a test to evaluate a risk score of an individual for experiencing a cardiovascular event (‘CV’) for up to five years based on identification of protein biomarkers in a single sample of an individual.

Previously, multiple sample collections were required, thus making such tests complex to administer and forming a barrier to adoption in some medical settings. Furthermore, the company’s test for predicting such CVs could be in the form of a device or kit, and is able to detect protein biomarkers in samples related to CVs in much lower concentrations compared to traditional laboratory applications such as two-dimensional gels or mass spectrometry.

In addition, the relatively shorter-term prediction (five years) of the test is considered an improvement over the established risk predictor for CVs used in the medical community – the Framingham Risk Score, which is based on the findings of the long-running Framingham Heart Study that predicts CVs over a ten-year period. Such long-term horizon risk predictions tend to be discounted by individuals who are reluctant to pre-emptively undertake behaviour and lifestyle modifications based on a ten-year risk prediction as compared to risk predictions of a shorter term.

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