A PHONE app developed in Scotland could help doctors identify patients at risk of dying from a heart attack.
The free app will help doctors, nurses or paramedics quickly calculate if a patient could suffer a heart attack within the next three years and gauge the severity of their condition.
It can also warn which patients are at risk of further attacks by analysing their heart rate, blood pressure, kidney function, severity of the original attack and history of heart failure.
Medics can then use it to work out which treatments are most suitable for that patient and which could cause them unwanted side-effects.
The smartphone app, which was developed by Edinburgh University and Massachusetts University, draws upon data from the Global Registry of Coronary Events.
This includes details of more than 100,000 heart attack patients in 14 countries over 10 years.
It also incorporates data from 3700 heart attack patients in Scotland and Belgium over a five-year period.
Details of the app were being presented yesterday at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Amsterdam.
Its development was supported by the British Heart Foundation, the Chief Scientist Office, the Scottish Government and pharmaceutical giants AstraZeneca.
Edinburgh University cardiology professor Keith Fox, who led work on the app, said: “One in five patients is likely to die within five years of their initial heart attack.
“Identifying those most at risk of a repeat attack means we can better tailor treatments to the individual and prevent further attacks.”
Meanwhile, a survey showed that people with big bellies are less likely to survive after a heart attack.
A study of 3670 patients in France found that those considered very obese had a 65 per cent higher chance of death within five years of an initial attack.
Professor Tabassome Simon, of Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, said: “It is not good to be too lean or too fat, but it is worse still when you have a big belly.”