Biomarker release after percutaneous coronary intervention: a message from the heart.

Cardiac biomarkers of necrosis provide clinicians with important “messages” from the heart. They are released into the interstitium of the myocardium after loss of the integrity of cardiac myocyte membranes. The pattern of the rise and fall of an individual biomarker (ie, its release kinetics) depends on its intracellular location in the myocyte, molecular weight, and clearance from the interstitium of the myocardium and ultimately the circulation.1 Cardiac biomarkers play an integral role in the clinical diagnosis of myocardial infarction (MI). Referring to the spontaneous occurrence of MI in patients, the World Health Organization required that at least 2 of the following be present to fulfill the criteria for MI: a history of ischemia-type chest discomfort, evolutionary changes on serially obtained ECG tracings, and a rise and fall in serum cardiac markers.2