Evaluation of patients presented to the emergency department with a
complaint of chest pain or other signs and/or symptoms suggestive of acute coronary
syndrome (ACS) is expensive and time-consuming. Nowadays, cardiac troponins
(cardiac troponins I and T) are established as the standard biomarkers for prognostic
evaluation and the detection of myocardial lesion of patients with ACS. Several studies
have demonstrated that increases in biomarkers upstream from biomarkers of
myocardial injury such as acute phase reactants, markers of inflammation, plaque
destabilization and rupture biomarkers, cellular adhesion molecules and biomarkers of
ischemia may identify patients with higher risk of having a cardiac event. The focus of
this review is to provide information on biomarkers, specifically cardiac troponin,
interleukin-6 and copeptin, which has become very important to improve the diagnosis
of acute coronary syndrome and to predict prognosis following an actual event.
Keywords: Acute coronary syndrome, Acute chest pain, Acute-phase reactants,
Angina, Atherosclerosis, Cardiac biomarkers, Cardiac troponin, Copeptin, Delta,
Diagnosis, Electrocardiograh, Emergency departments, High sensitivity assays,
Inflammation, Interleukin, Ischemia, Myocardial infarction, Myocardial necrosis,
Plaque vulnerability, Prognosis.