Patent ID: 8129135

Claim:
A method for diagnosing a cardiovascular disease involving thrombosis, or diagnosing stable and/or unstable angina pectoris in an individual comprising: determining an amount of caspase-cleaved cytokeratin-18 (CK-18) fragment in a sample from an individual; comparing the amount of caspase-cleaved CK-18 fragment in said sample to the amount of caspase-cleaved CK-18 fragment in a reference control of at least one individual not suffering from a cardiovascular disease involving thrombosis and/or a reference control of at least one individual suffering from stable angina pectoris or unstable angina pectoris; and diagnosing a cardiovascular disease involving thrombosis, or providing information to one who will diagnose cardiovascular disease involving thrombosis, if the amount of caspase-cleaved CK-18 fragment in the sample is increased in comparison to the amount of caspase-cleaved CK-18 fragment in the reference control from the at least one individual not suffering from a cardiovascular disease involving thrombosis, diagnosing stable angina pectoris, or providing information to one who will diagnose stable angina pectoris, if the amount of caspase-cleaved CK-18 fragment in the sample is decreased in comparison to the amount of caspase-cleaved CK-18 fragment in the reference control from the at least one individual suffering from unstable angina pectoris and/or if the amount of caspase-cleaved CK-18 fragment in the sample does not diverge with statistical significance from the amount of caspase-cleaved CK-18 fragment in the reference control from the at least one individual suffering from stable angina pectoris, and/or diagnosing unstable angina pectoris, or providing information to one who will diagnose unstable angina pectoris, if the amount of caspase-cleaved CK-18 fragment in the sample is increased in comparison to the amount of caspase-cleaved CK-18 fragment in the reference control from the at least one individual suffering from stable angina pectoris and/or if the amount of caspase-cleaved CK-18 fragment in the sample does not diverge with statistical significance from the amount of caspase-cleaved CK-18 fragment in the reference control from the at least one individual suffering from unstable angina pectoris.