Word: ridker
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...This is the fundamental problem in the prevention and treatment of heart attacks and strokes, according to Harvard Medical School professor Paul Ridker, the director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital. It is the story of the “45-year-old woman or man who goes out running and doesn’t come home because he or she drops dead,” Ridker said...
...Thirteen years ago, Ridker started studying a new predictor of heart disease, inflammation in the blood, and was able to demonstrate that individuals with this marker were at a higher risk for heart disease. Prior to this, arteriosclerosis, or the hardening of the arteries, had been the principal measure in diagnosing cardiovascular disease...
...Several years later, Ridker and his colleagues at the Medical School and Brigham and Women’s have released the results of a study testing the effectiveness of the cholesterol-lowering drug rouvastatin in treating individuals with high levels of a reactive protein that is an indicator of heart disease...
...study, funded by Astra-Zeneca, the maker of rouvastatin, tested nearly 18,000 patients who had low levels of cholesterol but high levels of the reactive protein. According to Ridker, the reduction in heart disease risk was far greater than the researchers anticipated...
...Rates of heart attack went down 50 percent,” Ridker said. “This is a magnitude of effect about twice as large as what you would predict. Similar studies found a 20 to 30 percent reduction in risk. The question becomes, ‘Why does this happen? Did we hit the sweet spot...