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What is cardiac biomarkers?
What are they Cardiac biomarkers are substances that are released into the blood when the heart is damaged. Measurement of these biomarkers is used to help diagnose, evaluate, and monitor patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The symptoms of ACS include chest pain, pressure, nausea, and/or shortness of breath. These symptoms are associated with heart attacks and angina, but they may also be seen with non-heart-related conditions. Increases in one or more cardiac biomarkers can identify patients with ACS, allowing rapid diagnosis and appropriate treatment of their condition. ACS is caused by a sudden decrease in the amount of blood and oxygen reaching the heart. This decrease, also termed ischemia, is usually due to severe narrowing of the coronary arteries or a sudden blockage of blood flow through these arteries. A decrease in the supply of blood to the heart can cause angina (chest pain). When blood flow to the heart is blocked or significantly reduced, it can cause heart cells to die, triggering an acute myocardial infarction (AMI or heart attack). This can lead to death of the affected heart muscle and to permanent damage and scarring of the heart. Cardiac biomarker tests are ordered to help detect the presence of ACS and to evaluate its severity as soon as possible so that appropriate therapy can be initiated. It is important to distinguish heart attack from angina, heart failure, or another condition because the treatments and monitoring requirements are different. For heart attacks, prompt medical intervention is crucial to minimize heart damage and future complications. Cardiac biomarker tests must be available to the doctor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with a rapid turn-around-time. Some of the tests may be performed at the point of care (POC) &ndash, in the Emergency Room or at the patients bedside. Serial testing of one or more cardiac biomarkers is often done to ensure that a rise in their blood levels is not missed and to estimate the severity of a heart attack. Only a few cardiac biomarker tests are routinely used by physicians. The current biomarker test of choice for detecting heart damage is troponin. Other cardiac biomarkers are less specific for the heart and may be elevated in skeletal muscle injury, liver disease, or kidney disease. Many other potential cardiac biomarkers are being researched, but their clinical utility has yet to be established. Note: Cardiac biomarkers are not the same tests as those that are used to screen the general healthy population for their risk of developing heart disease. Those can be found under Cardiac Risk Assessment.
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cardiac biomarkers information from trusted sources:
Cardiac catheterization
Cardiac catheterization involves passing a thin flexible tube (catheter) into the right or left side of the heart, usually from the groin or the arm. Read more on
www.nlm.nih.gov
Congestive Heart Failure
Congestive heart failure occurs when the heart is not strong enough to pump blood efficiently around the body, causing fluid to collect in the lungs and body tissue, which leads to congestion. Read more on
www.nhs.uk
Cardiac marker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cardiac markers are biomarkers measured to evaluate heart function. They are often discussed in the context of myocardial infarction, but other conditions ... Read more on
en.wikipedia.org
Update on Cardiac Biomarkers: Introduction
Oct 23, 2006 ... Introduction: Get up to speed in this important area. Read more on
www.medscape.com
Cardiac Biomarkers for Rapid Evaluation of Chest Pain -- Hamm 104 ...
by CW Hamm - 2001 - Cited by 64 - Related articles Read more on
scholar.google.com
National Guideline Clearinghouse | Use of cardiac biomarkers for ...
Sep 24, 2007 ... Use of cardiac biomarkers for acute coronary syndromes. Laboratory medicine practice guidelines: evidence-based practice for point-of-care ... Read more on
www.guideline.gov
Prognostic Value of New Cardiac Biomarkers in Elderly Patients ...
Dec 26, 2006 ... To evaluate the use of new cardiac biomarker for the prediction of in-hospital cardiovascular complications in elderly patients undergoing ... Read more on
clinicaltrials.gov
Use of Cardiac Markers in the Emergency Department: eMedicine ...
Jul 8, 2009 ... A rise, fall, or both of cardiac biomarkers (preferably troponin) with at least one value above the 99th percentile of the upper reference ... Read more on
emedicine.medscape.com
Contents
Alzheimer biomarkers
To help discriminate between Alzheimer's Disease and other forms of early-onset dementia
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Cardiac Risk
This is a group of tests and health factors that have been proven to indicate your chance of having a cardiovascular event such as heart attack or stroke. They have been refined to indicate the degree of risk: slight, moderate, or high.
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Cardiac catheterization
Cardiac catheterization is a procedure used to check for many cardiovascular conditions, especially blockages in the arteries to your heart that could cause a heart attack. During cardiac catheterization, a long thin tube called a catheter is inserted in an artery or vein in your groin, neck or arm and threaded through your blood vessels to your heart. Using this catheter, doctors can then do diagnostic tests as part of a cardiac catheterization. Some heart disease treatments, such as coronary angioplasty, also are done using cardiac catheterization.
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www.mayoclinic.com
CHF
Heart failure is a condition in which the heart can't pump enough blood throughout the body. Heart failure does not mean that your heart has stopped or is about to stop working. It means that your heart is not able to pump blood the way it should. The weakening of the heart's pumping ability causes
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www.nlm.nih.gov
Heart Surgery
Each day, thousands of people in the U.S. have heart surgery. There are many different types of heart surgery. Surgeries may be used to
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www.nlm.nih.gov
Sudden cardiac death
The heart has an internal electrical system that controls the rhythm of the heartbeat. Problems can cause abnormal heart rhythms, called arrhythmias. There are many types of arrhythmia. During an arrhythmia, the heart can beat too fast, too slow, or it can stop beating. Sudden cardiac arrest occurs when the heart develops an arrhythmia that causes it to stop beating. This is different than a heart attack, where the heart usually continues to beat but blood flow to the heart is blocked. There are many possible causes of cardiac arrest. They include coronary heart disease, heart attack, electrocution, drowning, or choking. There may not be a known cause to the cardiac arrest.
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www.nlm.nih.gov
Cardiac Arrest
Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is a condition in which the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. When this happens, blood stops flowing to the brain and other vital organs.
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Cardiac ablation
Cardiac ablation is a procedure that can correct heart rhythm problems (arrhythmias). Ablation typically uses catheters long flexible tubes inserted through a vein in your groin and threaded to your heart to correct structural problems in your heart that cause an arrhythmia.
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www.mayoclinic.com
Heart Diseases
If you're like most people, you think that heart disease is a problem for other folks. But heart disease is the number one killer in the U.S. It is also a major cause of disability. There are many different forms of heart disease. The most common cause of heart disease is narrowing or blockage of the coronary arteries, the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart itself. This is called coronary artery disease and happens slowly over time. It's the major reason people have heart attacks. Other kinds of heart problems may happen to the valves in the heart, or the heart may not pump well and cause heart failure. Some people are born with heart disease.
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www.nlm.nih.gov
Heart murmurs
A normal heartbeat makes two sounds like "lubb-dupp" (sometimes described as "lub-DUB"), which are the sounds of your heart valves closing. Heart murmurs are abnormal sounds during your heartbeat cycle such as whooshing or swishing made by turbulent blood in or near your heart.
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www.mayoclinic.com
Congestive Heart Failure
Congestive heart failure is a condition in which the heart does not pump blood properly. Congestive heart failure occurs when the heart, due to a defect, injury, or disease, is not able to pump enough blood to meet the body's needs. When this happens, body tissues, which depend on the oxygen and nutrients in blood circulated from the heart, no longer receive enough nourishment. As a result, patients experience shortness of breath when climbing stairs and walking quickly, and tire easily. Because the heart's ability to pump blood is reduced, fluid other than blood builds up in the tissues that were being nourished by a constant flow of blood this causes the tissues to retain fluid and to swell. Also, because the heart is weakened, it cannot prevent excess fluid from backing up in the lungs, which is why patients have difficulty breathing. The congestive in congestive heart failure refers to the buildup of fluid in tissues and the lungs.
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