RAISED levels of a particular protein in the blood could give advance warning of a heart attack in people not thought to be at risk, doctors said yesterday, writes Alan MacDermid, Medical Correspondent.
Measuring the protein - known as C-reactive protein (CRP) - during a routine cholesterol test could improve prediction of a heart attack even if cholesterol levels were normal, said the journal of the American Heart Association.
CRP is an acute-phase reactant - which means that its levels increase 100-fold or more - in response to severe bacterial infection, other inflammation or physical trauma.
To test its predictive value, scientists in Dallas examined blood samples among healthy people in a large-scale health study, and related these levels to the future development of heart attacks over the next nine years. High blood levels of CRP and total cholesterol ''were each associated with significantly increased risks of future heart attack''.
Testing for CRP in addition to total cholesterol proved to be a better predictor of risk than testing for cholesterol alone.
Individuals with elevated levels of both CRP and total cholesterol had a five times higher risk of a heart attack when compared to individuals without either of these risk factors.
This risk was substantially greater than the two-fold increase in risk associated with elevated levels of cholesterol alone.
The risk of future heart attack among those with high levels of both CRP and cholesterol were greater than the risk of each one combined.
The same phenomenon may also be true for predicting strokes in otherwise healthy people, said the journal, which suggests that it may be time to add a marker of inflammation to the list of cardiovascular disease risk factors commonly used to assess risk.
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