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Blood test could determine heart attack risk, clinical trials needed on flu vaccine regimes, and half of women experience post-sex blues

A simple blood test to determine whether a patient with chest pain will have a heart attack later in life could prevent hundreds of thousands of hospital admissions and save the NHS millions.

The Telegraph reports that a million people a year are taken to UK emergency departments with stabbing chest pains, most of which are not serious. A team from the University of Edinburgh has identified a simple test which can predict this risk from levels of the protein troponin, potentially allowing 400,000 people a year to be discharged immediately.

The Government should conduct comprehensive GP-led clinical trials on the efficacy of vaccination regimes during the next flu pandemic, after a study shows Tamiflu was handed out ‘indiscriminately’ during the last swine flu outbreak, the BBC reports.

The Academy of Medical Sciences, in conjunction with the Wellcome Trust, reviewed all recent evidence on Tamiflu and the evidence suggests thousands of patients may have received treatment that had no benefit at all.

And finally, almost half of women experience ‘post-coital blues’ according to a study picked up by the Independent.

The study, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, is based on an online survey that found 46% had experienced post-coital dysphoria or depression in their lifetime. The results are based on an online survey of university students, and only received a relatively low number of responses (230), which also showed 5% of women had experienced PCD as recently as the last four weeks.