Cardiac biomarkers of atherothrombosis and their implication in estimating the risk of cardiovascular disease

Introduction: Innovative cardiovascular risk estimation strategies that use cardiac biomarkers of atherothrombosis have been shown to be superior in cardiovascular risk stratification that those predictions based exclusively on the evaluation of traditional risk factors in isolation. A bibliographic review, analysis and categorization of different articles was performed in the databases Cumed, Lilacs, Scielo, Medline, the key terms for the search were: "homocysteine", "lipoprotein (a)" and "cardiovascular risk", in Spanish, English and Portuguese languages. Original review articles were considered, including systematic reviews and published meta-analyzes after 2000. Objective: To analyze some of the cardiac biomarkers of atherothrombosis that may be involved in the development of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and its thrombotic complications. Development: Accumulated evidence supports that cardiac biomarkers such as: hyperhomocysteinemia, hyperlipoproteinemia (a), increased plasma fibrinogen levels, coagulant factor VII, Plasminogen Tissue Activator Inhibitor type 1 and C-reactive protein are tools of Very useful for stratifying cardiovascular risk in those individuals with intermediate risk, or with unusual or undefined risk, essentially in the field of primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Conclusions: The identification of additional predictive emergent atherothrombosis biomarkers is crucial for a more effective prevention and therapy of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.