Worldwide, more than 200 million patients have major non-cardiac surgery annually and a significant proportion of these patients suffer major cardiovascular complications (e.g. nonfatal myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, vascular death) within 30 days of their surgery. Perioperative myocardial infarction is the most common cardiovascular complication and recent clinical studies have shown that even minor myocardial injury in relation to non-cardiac surgery is associated with 30-day mortality.