Patent ID: 7049066

Claim:
A method of diagnosing myocardial failure in a human comprising: (a) obtaining a sample of myocardial tissue from a ventricle of the heart of the human; (b) quantitating the expression of a-myosin heavy chain (α-MHC), β-myosin heavy chain (β-MHC), or both in the sample; (c) determining by statistical analysis if the expression of α-MHC, β-MHC, or both in the sample is significantly different than their expression in normal human ventricular myocardial tissue in order to diagnose whether myocardial failure is occurring or is not occurring in the human; and (d) diagnosing myocardial failure in said human if the levels of α-MHC are decreased or the levels of β-MHC are increased as compared to normal human ventricular myocardial tissue.