Cardiac Biomarkers and Analytical Methods

In the western world the prevalence of myocardial infarction is estimated at around 1-2% of the population; increases progressively with age, reaching a percentage of 10% after the 75 years. It is therefore considered the first cause of hospitalization and mortality in Western countries, as well as expenditure for the health system. It is therefore very important to have cardiac biomarkers that allow to confirm the diagnostic suspicion of coronary heart disease and/or heart failure, carry out prognostic evaluations and stratify patients as precisely as possible in relation to their actual risk. Currently as biomarkers of heart failure, natriuretic peptides (BNP and NT-proBNP) are widely used in clinical practice but, considering the complexity of heart failure and its clinical and pathophysiological heterogeneity, it is reasonable to think that a single biomarker is not sufficient . For these reasons, there is increasing interest in the scientific community in the search for new biomarkers useful for early diagnosis, for correct prognostic stratification and for evaluating the response to therapy.