Is C-reactive protein a prognostic marker after angioplasty?
C-reactive protein (CRP), an acute phase reactant and a strong marker of inflammation, has been found repeatedly to be a strong predictor of future cardiovascular events 1 and a marker of statin treatment in apparently healthy subjects without hyperlipidaemia. 2 Recently, the Jupiter trial 2 used CRP as the unique inflammatory marker to investigate the impact of rosuvastatin treatment on cardiovascular events. The study enrolled healthy men and women with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels of less than 130 mg/dl and high-sensitivity (hs) CRP levels of 2.0 mg/l or higher. Rosuvastatin reduced low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels by 50% and hsCRP levels by 37%. Importantly, the decrease in CRP levels was accompanied by a significant reduction in the incidence of major cardiovascular events. As a result of the important role of inflammation in cardiovascular disease and the prognostic value of CRP, preprocedural measurement of CRP has been proposed to be a tool in identifyin
