2.3 Cardiac biomarkers and heart damage
Cardiac biomarkers are substances released into the blood when the heart is damaged or stressed and can be useful in the early prediction or diagnosis of disease (Halushka, Goodwin & Halushka, 2019). Five cardiac biomarkers, namely, BNP, hs-TNI, α-HBDH, CK-MB, and LDH, were collected to evaluate heart function. Not all of the cardiac markers were tested for each patient during hospitalization. Therefore, patients were categorized according to the normal or abnormal results of the specific cardiac biomarker for each patient. Abnormal cardiac biomarker results were defined as serum levels above the upper reference limit.