Researchers at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2008 presented on Tuesday a new blood test, which identifies heart failure patients better than tests now used in emergency departments.

The test belongs to German company Brahms AG and was approved in Europe on October 1. The company funded a study, called Biomarkers in the Assessment of Congestive Heart Failure (BACH), which followed 1,641 patients from 15 investigational centers around the globe, including eight from the United States, who experienced difficulty breathing upon arrival at the emergency department.

The study found that the MR-proADM test was prognostically accurate 73.1 percent of the time, making it superior to both the B-Natriuretic peptide (BNP) test (60.6 percent) and the NTproBNP test (63 percent). The BACH researchers showed that MR-proADM was also a better predictor of 90-day mortality than NT-proBNP.

“I think that this is clearly significantly better than what we have now. It raises the bar,” Dr. W. Frank Peacock of the Cleveland Clinic, one of the study's lead investigators, said.

The company will submit the study to the US Food and Drug Administration by the end of this year as it seeks approval in the world’s biggest market, Nils Morgenthaler, the company's vice president for global medical affairs, said.

“If approved in the U.S., the MR-proADM test will help ensure patients are accurately diagnosed and rapidly receive the treatment they need,” Peacock said.