In the current New England Journal Study, coronary CT scans were used as a triage tool to screen low to intermediate risk patients who presented to the emergency department with chest pain.
At the health department, they were told that all the shareholders of the company would have to provide chest X-rays, and, in the most surreal demand of all, stool samples.
Dr Caroline Blackwell, one of the study team from the university's department of medical microbiology, said the discovery also had implications for research into cot death and chest infections among babies.