{"id":7428,"date":"2025-06-25T17:07:28","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T14:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/?p=7428"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:07:28","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T14:07:28","slug":"inflammation-emerging-as-a-central-factor-in-cardiovascular-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/inflammation-emerging-as-a-central-factor-in-cardiovascular-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Inflammation Emerging as a Central Factor in Cardiovascular Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Inflammation Emerging as a Central Factor in Cardiovascular Risk<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Highlighted Expert Commentary.Date: June 3, 2025<\/div>\n<div>Expert: Dr. Paul Ridker<\/div>\n<div>Affiliation: Harvard Medical School \/ Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital<\/div>\n<div>Topic: Inflammation and Heart Disease: A Paradigm Shift in Cardiovascular Risk Assessment<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Key Highlights:<\/div>\n<div><span> 1. Shift in Focus<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 Inflammation, not just cholesterol, is now a major focus in preventing and managing cardiovascular disease.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> 2. Role of hs-CRP<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) is a strong, validated biomarker for coronary inflammation.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 It outperformed LDL and lipoprotein(a) in long-term cardiovascular risk prediction, as shown in the 30-year Women\u2019s Health Study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> 3. Clinical Implications<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 Ignoring inflammation may lead to missed opportunities for early intervention.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 Routine screening for LDL, hs-CRP, and Lp(a) is now encouraged in both primary and secondary prevention.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> 4. Therapeutic Advances<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 Colchicine was FDA-approved in 2023 to treat coronary inflammation.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 Newer drugs like GLP-1 RAs and SGLT-2 inhibitors also reduce CRP levels.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 Ongoing trials are testing IL-6 inhibitors and other targeted agents (e.g., NLRP3-IL1-IL6 axis).<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> 5. Imaging Innovations<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 Fat attenuation index via cardiac CT enables direct imaging of perivascular coronary inflammation.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 This complements blood markers by localizing inflammation specifically to the coronary arteries.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> 6. Accessible Prevention Strategy<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 Dr. Ridker advocates for a simple, cost-effective screening approach:<\/span><\/div>\n<div>LDL + CRP + Lp(a), combined with history and physical exam.<\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 Recommends family cascade screening if elevated markers are detected.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> 7. Bottom Line<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 A new paradigm in cardiovascular prevention is emerging\u2014inflammation must be routinely assessed and treated, not just cholesterol.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inflammation Emerging as a Central Factor in Cardiovascular Risk Highlighted Expert Commentary.Date: June 3, 2025 Expert: Dr. Paul Ridker Affiliation: Harvard Medical School \/ Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital Topic: Inflammation and Heart Disease: A Paradigm Shift in Cardiovascular Risk Assessment Key Highlights: 1. Shift in Focus \u2022 Inflammation, not just cholesterol, is now a major [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7436,"href":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7428\/revisions\/7436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}