Diagnosing a heart attack via analysis of blood samples can often require more than an hour in a hospital laboratory. Quicker turnaround and treatment at the point of care is now possible with a handheld blood test recently introduced in some European countries by Royal Philips.

Device delivers rapid diagnosis of heart attack. Image source: Royal PhilipsThe device measures concentrations of a protein -- cardiac troponin I (cTnI) – released into the blood by the heart muscle after a heart attack.

The Dutch medical device company says the Minicare I-20 system can generate test results in less than 10 minutes. This may help reduce the time-to-treatment and time-to-discharge of patients.

The handheld analyzer works in concert with dedicated software and a single-use, disposable cartridge that contains an application-specific test based on Philips' biosensor technology.

Available in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, the Minicare I-20 was tested in real-life acute care settings within the European Lab2Go project, a consortium of European hospitals. The device was demonstrated to accurately measure cTnI values near the patient in the emergency department in less than 10 minutes.