Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) program

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels that cause an estimated 16.7 million global deaths, or 29.2% of deaths worldwide¹.

Heart attacks and strokes are usually acute events and are mainly caused by a blockage that prevents blood from flowing to the heart or brain. The most common reason for this is a build-up of fatty deposits called plaque on the inner walls of the blood vessels that supply the heart or brain. The narrowed arteries decrease the amount of blood and thereby nutrients and oxygen reaching your heart.

Undetected or untreated, this build-up can block the artery and cause a heart attack. A heart attack, also known as a myocardial infarction (MI), causes a part of the heart muscle to die, which weakens the heart’s ability to pump blood. Worldwide, about 7.2 million people die from heart attacks every year.

More than 50% of the deaths and disability from heart disease and strokes, which together kill more than 12 million people each year, can be cut by a combination of simple actions to reduce major risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity and smoking.

Coronary artery disease (CAD), the disease of the blood vessels supplying the heart muscle, is the most common form of cardiovascular disease.   CAD is the leading cause of death in North America and the predominant focus of Miraculins’ cardiovascular disease research and development program.

Risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD)

A major risk factor for CAD is high blood cholesterol. It is estimated that more than 200 million serum cholesterol tests are performed per year in the United States alone. However, blood cholesterol test results may be highly variable over a series of days, relatively expensive to perform and require a fasting blood sample from the patient.

Recent studies have shown that more than half of all heart attack patients actually have blood cholesterol levels within what is considered optimal². So while blood cholesterol remains an important risk factor for heart disease, it is widely accepted that several risk factors for CAD must be considered to provide an accurate picture of absolute risk of disease. Absolute cardiovascular disease risk is determined by a combination of all cardiovascular risk factors present. Some of the traditional risk factors recognized by the American Heart Association include:

• Physical inactivity, diet and obesity;
• Gender, increasing age and hereditary factors;
• Tobacco smoking;
• High blood pressure;
• High Blood cholesterol and other lipids
• Diabetes mellitus;

Additional indicators are costly to measure or assess, are resource intensive and inappropriate for a primary care setting, or require invasive procedures. These factors include:

• C-reactive protein (CRP)
• Homocysteine
• Carotid intima-media (CIMT) thickness; and
• Coronary calcium

Miraculins' coronary artery disease (CAD) test

In September 2010, Miraculins announced the acquisition of the innovative PREVU* Skin Cholesterol test.  PREVU* is a simple, non-invasive skin cholesterol test for risk assessment of coronary artery disease (CAD) that generates a reading in under five minutes.

As a new and demonstrated risk factor for heart disease, skin cholesterol provides valuable additional information to traditional CAD risk assessment. Skin contains over 11% of the body’s cholesterol and ages in parallel with vascular connective tissue. As the arterial walls accumulate cholesterol, so do the skin tissues. A high skin cholesterol level is a reliable predictor of higher cholesterol accumulation in the arteries and, accordingly, can be used in combination with other risk factors to assess an individual’s risk of coronary artery disease.

Cardiovascular disease facts

• Cardiovascular disease accounts for 16.7 million, or 29.2% of total global deaths, making it the number one cause of death throughout the world according to the World Health Organization.
• The total direct and indirect costs of cardiovascular disease and stroke is over $500 billion in the United States annually and over $20 billion in Canada.
• 50% of men and 63% of women who die suddenly from coronary artery disease show no previous symptoms of the disease

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