Apparatus and method for differentiating between symptoms of heart attack and gerd

An apparatus for testing a patient for distinguishing symptoms of a heart attack and GERD, the apparatus comprising:

• a housing including a saliva specimen holder configured to collect a saliva sample from a patient, and a blood specimen holder configured to collect a blood sample from the patient;
• the saliva specimen holder including a well configured to collect the saliva sample, a conjugate for mixing with the saliva sample, a pepsin testing zone for mixing the combined conjugate and saliva sample with a composition, and at least one membrane in fluid communication with the well and the pepsin testing zone, the at least one membrane configured to fluidly communicate a collected saliva sample to the conjugate and the combined conjugate and saliva sample to the pepsin testing zone through capillary action, wherein the composition is located on the at least one membrane in the pepsin testing zone and is configured, when mixed with the combined conjugate and saliva sample containing pepsin, to provide a pepsin indicator;
• the blood specimen holder including a well configured to collect a blood sample, a D-dimer testing zone, and a membrane configured to fluidly communicate a collected blood sample from the well to the D-dimer testing zone, wherein a composition is located on the membrane in the D-dimer testing zone and is configured, when mixed with blood containing a D-dimer protein, to provide a D-dimer indicator;
• and
• a display including a window over at least the pepsin testing zone and the D-dimer testing zone.

A method for testing a patient for distinguishing symptoms of a heart attack and GERD, the method comprising:

• collecting a sample of blood with a blood specimen holder;
• adding a diluent buffer to the collected blood sample to form a diluted blood sample, wherein the diluted blood sample is fluidly communicated by a membrane to a D-dimer testing zone to permit the diluted blood to mix with a composition, the composition configured to provide an indication of the presence of D-dimer protein in the diluted blood sample, and wherein a display indicates if there is a presence of D-dimer protein in the blood sample;
• collecting a sample of saliva with a saliva specimen holder;
• analyzing the collected saliva sample to determine the presence of pepsin in the sample of saliva;
• and
• displaying information if an amount of pepsin in the collected saliva sample is above a threshold amount.