{"id":7908,"date":"2025-07-14T17:08:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T14:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/?p=7908"},"modified":"2025-07-14T17:08:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T14:08:17","slug":"inflammation-playing-a-much-bigger-role-in-heart-disease-evaluations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/inflammation-playing-a-much-bigger-role-in-heart-disease-evaluations\/","title":{"rendered":"Inflammation Playing a Much Bigger Role in Heart Disease Evaluations"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Inflammation Playing a Much Bigger Role in Heart Disease Evaluations<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Highlighted in June 2025, from a Medscape article originally published in May 2025.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Key Points:<\/div>\n<div><span> 1. Inflammation Takes Center Stage:<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 Inflammation is emerging as a central factor in cardiovascular risk, alongside or even above cholesterol.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 Dr. Paul Ridker of Harvard emphasizes that high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) is a key biomarker that can guide both prediction and treatment of heart disease.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span> 2. CRP Outperforms Traditional Risk Markers:<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 Long-term data from the Women\u2019s Health Study (30,000 women over 30 years) show that hs-CRP is a stronger predictor of cardiovascular events than LDL or Lipoprotein(a).<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 Ignoring inflammation in risk assessment may result in missed opportunities for early prevention.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span> 3. Screen What You Want to Treat:<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 Ridker calls for routine testing of hs-CRP, LDL, and Lp(a) in both primary and secondary prevention.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 \u201cDoctors don\u2019t treat what they don\u2019t measure\u201d\u2014inflammation should be screened and addressed like blood pressure or cholesterol.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span> 4. Pharmaceutical Innovation:<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 In 2023, colchicine became the first FDA-approved drug specifically targeting coronary inflammation.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 Other drugs, including GLP-1 receptor agonists and SGLT2 inhibitors, also show CRP-lowering effects.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 Ongoing research is exploring targeted therapies along the IL-1 \u2192 IL-6 \u2192 NLRP3 pathway, relevant to atherosclerosis, HFpEF, and more.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span> 5. Direct Imaging of Inflammation:<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 New techniques like fat attenuation index (FAI) using cardiac CT allow direct visualization of perivascular inflammation.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 These tools complement blood biomarkers like CRP, which reflect systemic rather than localized inflammation.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span> 6. A Simpler, Smarter Approach to Prevention:<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 Ridker warns against over-reliance on costly imaging.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 He advocates for a simple, cost-effective model using history, physical exam, and three blood tests: LDL, CRP, Lp(a).<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span> \u2022 These tests can guide family screening and catch silent risk early in both prevention settings.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.medscape.com\/viewarticle\/role-inflammation-heart-disease-what-pcps-should-know-2025a1000c32\">https:\/\/www.medscape.com\/viewarticle\/role-inflammation-heart-disease-what-pcps-should-know-2025a1000c32<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inflammation Playing a Much Bigger Role in Heart Disease Evaluations Highlighted in June 2025, from a Medscape article originally published in May 2025. Key Points: 1. Inflammation Takes Center Stage: \u2022 Inflammation is emerging as a central factor in cardiovascular risk, alongside or even above cholesterol. \u2022 Dr. Paul Ridker of Harvard emphasizes that high-sensitivity [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7908","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\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7909,"href":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7908\/revisions\/7909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jordan-cardiac.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}