Blood tests

Blood test can help physicians narrow down their diagnosis of a particular type of heart disease. Some conditions, including heart attack (myocardial infarction) and heart failure, can be diagnosed by analyzing disease-specific markers in the blood, while blood cultures can help to identify the causative agents of bacterial infections affecting the heart valves.

Blood tests can provide a great deal of information on your general health and, as a result, form part of our standard diagnostic tests for all of our cardiac patients. There are also additional blood tests that specifically test for indicators of heart function. These include:

Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)

Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) is an enzyme that is present in almost all body tissues. Blood tests can test for LDH levels in blood plasma (serum). When cells die, their components - including LDH - are released into the blood. As a result, increased LDH in the blood is indicative of higher-than-normal tissue death.

It can indicate a higher than normal number of cardiac muscle cells dying, such as during a heart attack. As damage to other cells in the body, including those in the lungs, liver, gall bladder, muscles and blood, can also lead to increased LDH levels, diagnosis of a heart attack requires other parameters to be tested as well.

 

H-FABP

H-FABP (heart type fatty acid binding protein) is a protein involved in active fatty acid metabolism and is mainly found in heart muscle tissue. When heart muscle cells begin to die off as a result of a heart attack, H-FABP is released into the blood, where it can be detected after only a very short time. It can therefore provide prompt confirmation of a suspected heart attack.

 

Procalcitonin (PCT)

Procalcitonin (PCT) is the precursor of the hormone calcitonin. Procalcitonin is released into the blood in response to inflammation. Although an increase in PCT levels can be indicative of severe bacterial infections such as sepsis or endocarditis, this test cannot be used in isolation.

An accurate diagnosis will require further tests and investigations.

 
 
 
 
 
Relevant information

Emergency numbers

  • Emergencies only:
    112
    Our emergency room:
    +49 3338-69 45 21

Contact person

  • Univ.-Prof. Dr. med.
    Christian Butter
    Head of the Department of Cardiology, Immanuel Hospital Bernau Brandenburg Heart Center

    PA to Head of Department Christine Meinecke
    Immanuel Hospital Bernau Brandenburg Heart Center
    Ladeburger Str. 17
    16321 Bernau bei Berlin
    T +49 3338 694-610
    F +49 3338 694-644
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