A NEW type of imaging test to provide an early warning of coronary artery disease - and the risk of heart attacks - has been developed by Oxford University boffins.

A team led by Professor Charalambos Antoniades, associate professor of cardiovascular medicine, discovered that fat surrounding the heart arteries can 'sense' inflammation coming from the adjacent artery.

In response to this the team created a new imaging technology, which tracks the changes in fat surrounding arteries, to be used alongside routine computed tomography angiography (CTA) scans.

The technique could mean doctors can diagnose people at risk of a heart attack well in advance of the actual event.

The study was part-funded by the British Heart Foundation. Each year more than 100,000 people die from a heart attack caused by the rupture of a fatty deposit inside an artery.

Prof Antoniades said: "Currently, CT scans can only identify people who have significant narrowings in their heart vessels.

"But by then the disease may have already caused damage which cannot be undone, and it is not possible to identify which narrowings might progress to cause a heart attack.

"The new scan offers the potential to find people at an earlier stage of disease and before damage becomes irreversible."