Inflammation plays a major role in the atherosclerosis process – from the development of plaque to it’s rupture. It makes sense then, to measure inflammation in the body and for years, physicians have done just that with C-reactive protein (CRP) (http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4648).
However, a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA; one of the top medical journals) found that high CRP levels do not directly cause atherosclerosis and therefore interventions that aim to lower CRP may be a waste of time.
What about the Juniper trial? This is the trial that showed that even people with LDL levels in the normal range benefited from statin therapy, likely because of the role statin drugs play in lowering CRP. According to the authors of this most recent study, the benefits of statin use in the Juniper trial were due to their lipid lowering ability (even in those without high LDL levels) versus alterations in CRP.
There are a few things we can take home from the results of these studies:
– Inflammation plays a role in atherosclerosis
– High CRP levels may not cause atherosclerosis
– Future studies need to elucidate whether or not CRP is associated with coronary heart disease
– Statins work, we may not know the complete picture regarding why they work but we know they work
What a great, informative post! I also just posted the newest study from Britain that looked at CRP as a possible cause of cardiovascular disease and found there was no reason to suspect it has a causal role. (http://keepyourhearthealthy.wordpress.com) It looks like this new study is the follow-up that many people have been looking for to confirm that CRP is NOT a cause of cardiovascular disease. Despite the latest results, some physicians have no intention of giving up on CRP just yet!