The Reason for the Importance of Cardiac Markers and the Selection Methods

Ⅰ. What are cardiac markers?

In order to reflect heart disease more comprehensively, international medical experts put forward the concept of cardiac markers. It is the synthesis of various test indicators, hoping to reflect the various stages of heart disease through these indicators and be found sensitively in the early stage of heart disease. The detection of cardiac markers is the key to the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Medikament provides the cardiac biomarkers list, contact us for more details.

The development of cardiac marker test, also known as heart marker test, has directly promoted the diagnosis and treatment of clinical cardiovascular diseases. In the 1950s, a major medical advance was made in the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) by dynamically measuring the changes of serum enzyme activity.

Ⅱ. Why is cardiac marker test so important?

1. Cardiovascular diseases have a high mortality rate, high disability rate, high medical costs and severely impaired quality of life. Therefore, the treatment of cardiovascular diseases focuses on early detection, early prevention and early treatment.

2. Heart disease is a common and frequently-occurring disease in clinic. Typical patients can be diagnosed according to the history, symptoms and special changes of electrocardiogram. However, about 1/4 of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) have no typical symptoms at the early stage, and about 1/2 of patients with AMI lack electrocardiogram changes. At this point, the cardiac marker test is particularly important in the diagnosis of heart disease.

3. Detection of cardiac markers is of great significance in guiding the treatment of cardiac patients, monitoring the thrombolytic effect of patients with thrombosis, and judging the recovery.

4. Cardiac markers are generally stored in the heart (myocardium) and released by the heart in large quantities in the case of cardiac and cardiovascular abnormalities. Due to their relatively high sensitivity and specificity, the success rate of detection of minor injuries is improved. Cardiac marker test gets time for early diagnosis and treatment of patients with cardiovascular disease, reduces medical costs and improves patient outcomes.

5. Improvement of detection methods. With the improvement of detection methods and detection systems for myocardial markers, the sensitivity has gradually been increased from the initial rapid test kit colloidal gold to enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and then to time-resolved fluorescence analysis and chemiluminescence.

Ⅲ. How to choose an appropriate cardiac marker test?

First, we can detect diseases easily in circulating blood and reflect sensitively and specifically the heart disease and its severity. Next, we can use the information for screening, diagnosis, assessment of prognosis and follow-up treatment effect. Finally, under normal circumstances it is mainly or only exists in the heart, and in the case of the heart or cardiovascular anomalies it is released by heart.

Ⅳ. What are the qualified cardiac marker tests?

At present, clinically applied cardiac markers can be roughly divided into three categories according to their functions: The first is marker reflecting myocardial injury, such as cardiac troponin, creatine kinase isoenzyme, myoglobin, cardiac fatty acid binding protein, etc.

The second is cardiac marker test reflecting heart function, mainly including A-type natriuretic peptide (ANP), B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), N-terminal brain natriuretic peptide precursor (NT-probNP), etc. The third is to reflect the state of cardiovascular inflammation, such as high sensitivity C reactive protein.