A method for identifying the presence of spontaneous ischemia in a subject comprised of obtaining biological samples from the subject at each of a plurality of time intervals within 18 hours of the onset of a symptom, measuring the amount of an angiogenic growth factor in the biological samples at each of the plurality of time intervals, and comparing the amounts of the angiogenic growth factor measured, wherein decreasing amounts of the angiogenic growth factor during the time intervals is indicative of spontaneous ischemia. Methods for identifying the presence of ischemia induced by an exercise or a pharmaceutical composition in a subject are also described.
Biochemical markers of ischemia