Cardiac Markers

Cardiac markers are proteins expressed commonly or exclusively by myocardial cells and released into the circulating blood upon cell necrosis. They are known as troponin I, myoglobin and CK-MB.
These cardiac markers play an essential role in the global risk assessment and treatment of patients presenting with an acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

Brain Damage Markers

A lack of reliable biochemical markers has hampered efforts to understand the mechanisms behind the complications resulting from these disorders. Neurological examinations and neuropsychological testing, together with various imaging techniques, are common methods for assessing cerebral injury. However, these methods are expensive and time-consuming.
Beyond its application as tumour marker for melanoma, protein S-100B is highly specific for glial cells and has very high sensitivity for brain damage. Clinical studies show immediate release of this marker after brain injury into the blood. S100 is also a useful marker for monitoring brain damage and detecting secondary neurological injuries. In recent years much interest has been focused on the S-100B protein, now recognized as a useful marker for brain damage. The value of S-100 in head injury, cardiac arrest and stroke has been demonstrated in a very large number of publications.
Furthermore Enolase (NSE), which is an enzyme involved in glucose metabolism (catalyses the conversion of 2-phospho-Dglycerate to phospho-enol-pyruvate) is found in malignant tumours, has also been used as a marker in different kind of cerebral diseases such us traumatic brain injury, stroke and circulatory arrest. Enolase is mainly used for monitoring the severity of the injury and as an early predictor of outcome.