❤️ Heart Health Tests: Cardiac Markers 2025
Hello, friends! The Wizey team here. Today, let’s talk about a topic that literally makes many people’s hearts skip a beat—cardiac tests.
You know, our heart isn’t just a pump. It’s an incredibly complex, finely tuned mechanism that works without vacations or weekends for our entire lives. And like any mechanism, it sometimes sends us signals that something is wrong. The problem is, these signals don’t always look like a Hollywood scene where someone clutches their chest. Sometimes, it’s just shortness of breath climbing to the third floor, strange fatigue, or swollen ankles.
And that’s where the interesting part begins—the trip to the lab. You get a report with a bunch of confusing abbreviations and numbers: troponin, CK-MB, NT-proBNP… What is all this? A secret code for cardiologists? Stay calm! Let’s figure out together what modern cardiac markers are and how they help doctors look inside our “beating engine.”
Cardiac Markers: Biochemical “Witnesses” in Your Blood
Imagine an event related to your heart has occurred in your body. For example, due to stress or a blocked vessel, a part of your heart muscle (myocardium) has experienced oxygen deprivation. The cells of the myocardium, cardiomyocytes, are delicate. When damaged, they begin to break down and “release” their contents into the bloodstream.
Cardiac markers are those very substances that normally live inside heart cells and, when damaged, enter the bloodstream. By their concentration in the blood, a doctor, like an experienced detective, can understand:
- The fact of damage: Did it happen at all?
- The scale of the tragedy: How badly was the heart muscle affected?
- The approximate time of the “incident”: When did it happen?
Let’s meet the main characters of this biochemical drama.
The “Gold Standard” for Diagnosing a Heart Attack: Troponins
If cardiac markers were a rock band, troponins would be its undisputed frontmen. These are proteins responsible for the contraction of muscle fibers. Normally, they are almost non-existent outside of heart cells. Therefore, even a slight increase in the level of troponin I or troponin T in the blood is a very alarming sign that most likely indicates damage to the myocardium, most often a heart attack.
- When is it ordered? For acute chest pain, suspicion of a myocardial infarction.
- What does it show? It appears in the blood 3-4 hours after the damage, peaks in 1-2 days, and can remain elevated for up to two weeks. This allows for “catching” a heart attack even if the patient did not see a doctor immediately.
- Important: A slight increase in troponins can also occur in other conditions (severe heart failure, myocarditis, pulmonary embolism). Therefore, a diagnosis of a heart attack is never made based on a single test! The doctor always evaluates the whole picture: ECG, symptoms, heart ultrasound, and test data.
The Old Guard: CK-MB
Creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB) is a “veteran” of cardiac diagnostics, the predecessor of troponins. It is a heart-specific fraction of the enzyme creatine kinase.
- When is it ordered? It used to be the main marker for a heart attack, but now it is used less frequently, mainly as an additional tool.
- What does it show? It rises faster than troponin (within 2-3 hours), but also returns to normal faster (within 2-3 days). This can be useful for diagnosing a recurrent heart attack if it occurs a few days after the first one, when troponin levels are still elevated.
Looking to the Future: Markers of Risk and Heart Failure
Medicine is not standing still. Today, tests help not only to diagnose a “catastrophe” that has already occurred but also to assess risks and monitor the condition of patients with chronic diseases.
A Marker of Heart Overload: NT-proBNP
Imagine your heart is working under increased load. For example, due to high blood pressure or a weakening of the muscle itself. The walls of the heart, especially its ventricles, begin to stretch. In response to this stretching, the myocardial cells release a special hormone—brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and its “precursor” NT-proBNP.
- What is it, in simple terms? It’s the heart’s cry for help. The more it is stretched and overloaded, the higher the level of NT-proBNP in the blood.
- When is it ordered? This is the main marker for the diagnosis and monitoring of chronic heart failure (CHF). If you have shortness of breath, swelling, and the doctor can’t figure out if it’s the heart or, say, the lungs, an NT-proBNP test will help clarify things. A normal level of this marker highly likely rules out heart failure.
- Important: The level of NT-proBNP increases with age and may also be higher in women and people with kidney failure.
Sometimes it can be difficult to make sense of all these indicators, especially when you have several tests with deviations. It is for such situations that we created Wizey. You can upload your results, and our service will help you structure the information, highlight which markers to pay special attention to, and suggest which specialist (cardiologist, nephrologist, therapist) would be most appropriate to consult. This is a great way to prepare for a doctor’s visit and speak the same language.
A Marker of Inflammation: C-Reactive Protein (high-sensitivity)
We are used to C-reactive protein (CRP) being a marker of acute infection or inflammation. But there is its “advanced” version—high-sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP). It can detect minimal, chronic inflammatory processes, including in the walls of blood vessels.
- Why is this necessary? Modern cardiology views atherosclerosis not just as the deposition of “bad” cholesterol, but as a chronic, low-grade inflammatory process in the vessel wall. An elevated level of hs-CRP, especially in combination with high cholesterol, indicates an increased risk of developing a heart attack or stroke in the future.
- When is it ordered? To assess cardiovascular risks in seemingly healthy people.
So What Should You Do with This Information?
The main conclusion we want to convey is that tests are a tool in the hands of a doctor, not a reason for self-diagnosis and panic.
- Don’t order tests for yourself. The list of necessary tests should be determined by a doctor based on your complaints, medical history, and examination.
- Evaluate the results only as a whole. An increase in one indicator is a signal, not a diagnosis. Perhaps you had a hard workout the day before (which can increase CK) or you have an exacerbation of a chronic disease.
- Look at the dynamics. Often, what is more important to a doctor is not a single value, but how the marker changes over time. That is why, in case of a suspected heart attack, tests are taken several times with an interval of several hours.
The heart is a surprisingly reliable organ, but its resource is not infinite. Modern tests give us the opportunity to notice problems in time and take action. Treat your health wisely, be friends with evidence-based medicine, and don’t be afraid of complex abbreviations on test forms. Now you know what’s behind them.
Take care of your hearts! Your Wizey Team.
