The promise of cardiovascular biomarkers in assessing children with cardiac disease and in predicting cardiovascular events in adults

Cardiac and vascular biomarkers are used in the diagnosis, assessment, and prognosis of a variety of cardiovascular diseases in adults and children. For children, cardiac biomarkers are most often used to assess cardiomyopathy or congenital cardiovascular malformations or for monitoring during cardio-pulmonary bypass and pre- and post-heart transplantation. Because the risk for cardiovascular events in adulthood can be tracked from childhood, interest is high in identifying biomarkers of vascular inflammation in children that might also predict atherosclerotic events later in life. Here, we review the most common and promising biomarkers and comment on their current and potential uses in monitoring and predicting cardiovascular dysfunction.