Word: crp
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...levels of c-reactive protein, or CRP--who knows? My doctor didn't test for it, and it didn't occur to me to ask. But two reports in last week's New England Journal of Medicine suggest that CRP may be just as important a risk factor for coronary-artery disease and heart attacks as LDL--and maybe more so. Does that mean I should have had the test? Not on the basis of what was known then. But now things are different...
...CRP is a protein secreted by the liver in response to inflammation, and over the past several years it has become apparent to experts that inflammation is a big part of heart disease. CRP seems to play a role in damaging artery walls, making them more prone to the buildup of fatty plaques that can rupture and block the vessels that feed the heart. Sure enough, studies have shown that high CRP levels, signaling active inflammation, are associated with heart problems...
Doctors also know that statins can reduce inflammation. So cardiologists from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston put 3,745 patients who had experienced heart attacks or severe chest pain on statins, and later measured levels of both LDL and CRP. It turned out that patients who ended up with low CRP were less likely to have heart attacks or die than those whose CRP stayed high--whether or not their LDL levels went down. Showing that CRP reduction is at least as important as cholesterol reduction, says Dr. Paul Ridker, lead author of the report, is a "home...
...second study, from the Cleveland Clinic, also tracked cardiac patients, but instead of looking at heart attacks, the researchers measured actual plaque buildup. The patients whose CRP dropped the most on statins saw their plaques get smaller--again, independent of what happened to their...
While researchers agree that CRP is a strong predictor of heart disease, they are still conducting studies to prove that reducing CRP levels can actually cut heart-disease risk. Ridker has shown that statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs, work as anti-inflammatory agents as well, hitting heart disease with a one-two punch. Even more exciting are new trials showing that the inflammatory response may play a role in other conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease and cancer. After decades undercover, inflammation's role may finally be out in the open. --By Alice Park