A cheap blood test could save the lives of thousands of heart attack patients, according to a new study.

       Funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), the study was carried out by experts from Imperial College London, who found the quick test can help doctors to spot people at high risk of death following a suspected attack.

       In the study published in PLoS Medicine, researchers in collaboration with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Informatics Collaborative (HIC), used data from more than 250,000 patients who were admitted to hospital with a suspected heart attack.