Circulating Biomarkers in Cardiovascular Disease

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, a biomarker is ‘a distinctive biological or biologically derived indicator (as a metabolite) of a process, event, or condition (as aging, disease, or oil formation)’ [1]. A biomarker can be structural, such as mammography or a coronary calcium scan, or functional, such as glomerular filtration rate or blood pressure, but the term biomarker is most commonly used for describing measureable serological or circulating biological entities, such as proteins or metabolites. The purposes of measuring a biomarker vary, but include help in identification of individuals at increased risk for disease, screening for subclinical disease in asymptomatic individuals, diagnosis of existing disease in symptomatic patients, monitoring of treatment results in patients on therapy, or prognostication of recurrence or sequelae of disease. The purpose of this special issue of ‘Disease Markers’ is to give a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge regarding circulating biomarkers in cardiovascular disease. The main focus of the eight articles is the use of biomarkers in risk stratification of healthy individuals or early detection of subclinical disease, but some of the contributions also discuss other uses of biomarkers, such as prognostication in individuals with prevalent disease. In cardiovascular medicine, there is a long history of using biomarkers