Diagnosing an MI afterwards

Hello, 

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd throw a quick question out there that I was asked by a patient while out volunteering with the ambulance service. The patient asked me how MIs can be diagnosed later in the day after the attack itself has passed. I explained to him about how the ECG would show ischemic changes and then about how blood tests can detect cardiac markers. Firstly, what actually are these cardiac markers, and secondly, how long will they remain in the blood? How long after an MI can one be diagnosed as having happened?

Cheers,

Sam

Source: Doc2Doc BMJ Cardiology - April 19, 2014 Category: Cardiology Authors: samrneal Source Type: forums