Heart attacks occur when blood flow to the heart muscle is interrupted.
This happens when a blockage obstructs one or more of the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle. Without blood, heart cells lack oxygen and quickly begin to die. As they succumb, the cells spew their contents into the blood, giving doctors chemical signs, or biomarkers, to measure the severity of a heart attack. These biomarkers now include substances called troponins, which give earlier warnings than other biomarkers and allow doctors to diagnose even the mildest heart attacks. We are better at picking up the small heart attacks now than we were a few years ago, and that is what you really want to do.