Over 1.5 million people have heart attacks in the U.S.A. every year and over half a million die as a result. Rapid and accurate diagnosis after the onset of symptoms is important not only to institute proper therapy but also to rule out myocardial infarction (MI). Since electrocardiograms can often be misleading, a number of laboratory enzyme tests have been used to diagnose MI but these procedures are often not available at all hours. Recent literature supports the ratio of serum lactate dehydrogenase isoenzyme-1 (LD-1) to total LD as the best laboratory test for MI. Present methods for LD-1 are tedious, time consuming, costly and difficult to automate. Automation is the best approach to accurate and rapid laboratory analyses. The proposed system is a simple automated analyzer that rapidly performs both LD-1 and total LD determinations with a single, stable reagent system. The feasibility of the reagent design has been demonstrated. The goals of the Phase I project are to complete the reagent development and build a breadboard instrument. The instrument will be easy to use by both the main laboratory and the coronary care unit. It will be available for STAT samples at any time.
