Role of Cardiac Myocytes Heart Fatty Acid Binding Protein Depletion (H-FABP) in Early Myocardial Infarction in Human Heart (Autopsy Study)

BACKGROUND: Many immunohistochemical markers have been used in the postmortem detection of early myocardial infarction. AIM: In the present study we examined the role of Heart-type fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP), in the detection of early myocardial infarction. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We obtained samples from 40 human autopsy hearts with/ without histopathological signs of ischemia. RESULTS: All cases of definite and probable myocardial infarction showed a well-defined area of H-FABP depletion. All of the control cases showed strong H-FABP expression, except two markedly autolysed myocardial samples that showed affected antigenicity. CONCLUSION: Thus, we suggest H-FABP as being one of the valuable tools facing the problem of postmortem detection of early myocardial infarction/ischemia, but not in autolysis