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A new kind of testing will predict the development of dangerous diseases
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Such common pathologies as heart failure, stroke, malignant tumors and diabetes cause the death of thousands of people every day. Therefore, the timely prevention of such diseases becomes an important problem for scientists.
Today, specialists from the United States have come up with a special test that can assess the degree of danger of the emergence of such dangerous diseases.
The staff of the National American Center for Disease Control and Prevention shared information that 50% of the adult population of the United States suffers from one or another chronic pathology. And approximately 48% of all deaths in America occur as a result of long-term cardiovascular diseases and cancer processes.
Scientists from the Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, have drawn attention to the following: a modern general practitioner is unable to effectively assess the degree of risk of patients becoming ill. According to statistics, the most common scenario for visiting a doctor today is as follows: a patient makes an appointment for a specific illness (for example, laryngitis or an abscess), is prescribed treatment, and the patient no longer bothers the doctor until the next illness occurs. At the same time, neither the doctor nor the patient can even guess what illnesses await the person during the year and how to prevent them. Such thoughts led scientists to create the innovative combined testing ICHRON, which assesses the general indicators of the risk of developing chronic diseases. Now, to predict a person's health in relation to a large number of the most common pathologies, it is enough to take several tests and check their indicators in accordance with the patient's age.
What diseases does this test "work" with? These are type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstruction of the lungs, heart failure, heart attacks and strokes, peripheral arterial disease, senile dementia and heart rhythm disorders.
The innovative testing was presented by epidemiologist Heidi May at the 66th American College of Cardiology Scientific Meeting. The full report is available in the journal JACC.
Scientists confirmed the effectiveness of testing on volunteers – healthy people who do not suffer from the listed chronic pathologies. According to the report, the test results were justified in 77.5% of cases. The testing was carried out as follows: with a low score, a person could safely go home, since his risk of chronic pathology was small. With a high ICHRON score, the patient was recommended to undergo additional diagnostics and consult a doctor.
As experts predict, this innovation will help reduce the incidence rate and even reduce the state’s financial costs for supporting healthcare.
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