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.