Patent ID: 7217517

Claim:
A method of identifying an incidence of ischemia in human heart tissue, the method comprising: (a) measuring mRNA levels of both apoptosis-specific eIF-5A (eIF-5A1) and proliferating eIF-5A (eIF-5A2) in the tissue; (b) comparing the level of eIF-5A1 mRNA with the level of eIF-5A2 mRNA in the tissue; (c) correlating an elevated level of eIF-5A1 mRNA that is higher than the level of eIF-5A2 mRNA with an incidence of ischemia in the tissue; and (d) wherein the eIF-5A1 mRNA encodes an eIF-5A1 polypeptide comprising SEQ ID NO: 32 and wherein the eIF-5A2 mRNA encodes an eIF-5A2 polypeptide comprising SEQ ID NO:33 or 35.