Review Article
Athar Khalil, Amina Kamar, Geo
Abstract
Myocardial infarction (MI) is a major manifestation of coronary heart disease that causes cardiac tissue necrosis, myocardial inflammation, pathological remodeling and dysfunction of the left ventricle. It is thus very critical to diagnose myocardial infarction in chest pain patients as soon as possible. The golden standard for diagnosing acute myocardial infarction is still cardiac troponin I (cTnI) which is not a very sensitive or specific assay. Therefore, detecting specific and accurate biomarkers at early stage is a necessity for optimal diagnosis, prognosis, prevention and treatment. miRNAs have proved to be good biomarkers in MI, in this review we will focus on four miRNAs (miRNA-133,-208,-1,and -499) that are intensively studied as biomarkers in AMI patients. Most studies have revealed that these micro-RNAs show low or no expression levels in the plasma of healthy individuals, while they are released into peripheral circulation in time dependent manner in AMI patients. This gave them the power to be used as a diagnostic tool for AMI. Additionally, some miRNAs were used for the prediction of future cardiovascular death as follow up studies have publicized.