Study says new blood tests are no better than the old methods for predicting heart attacks CLICK FOR MORE: "New blood tests that doctors hoped would more accurately predict which patients are headed for a heart attack or stroke are no better than cholesterol levels, blood pressure and other conventional measurements, a study found.

Doctors in recent years had become excited over substances in the blood that appeared to be powerful new predictors of a heart attack. These substances included C-reactive protein, or CRP; homocysteine; and BNP, or B-type natriuretic peptide.

An increasing number of family doctors have been ordering expensive tests for these substances, and some patients have started requesting them, in hopes of identifying people who do not have the standard risk factors but are still likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke.

But the new research, by scientists at the highly regarded Framingham Heart Study, found that tests of CRP, BNP, homocysteine and seven other substances are only a couple of percentage points better at predicting outcomes than the standard, commonsense risk factors that doctors have known for decades."