Cardiac markers or, more correctly, cardiac biomarkers are now integral to diagnostic and management strategies in cardiovascular disease. Scarcely a week passes without another publication claiming a new and allegedly useful cardiac biomarker. The actuality is that only two cardiac biomarkers are currently in routine clinical use; the measurement of the cardiac troponins for the differential diagnosis of suspected acute coronary syndromes and measurement of B type natriuretic peptide (BNP) for the differential diagnosis of suspected cardiac failure.