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Updated: Aug 8, 2026
On-Chip Endothelial Inflammatory Phenotyping
Published on: July 21, 2012
High-sensitivity C-reactive protein, inflammation, and cardiovascular risk: from concept to clinical practice to
1Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass 02215, USA. pridker@partners.org
Insights
High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) effectively identifies cardiovascular risk beyond traditional factors. Targeting statin therapy based on hs-CRP levels can significantly improve cardiovascular disease prevention.
Area of Science:
- Vascular Biology
- Inflammation and Cardiovascular Disease
Background:
- Inflammation is integral to cardiovascular disease (CVD) development.
- High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) predicts CVD risk beyond traditional factors.
- hs-CRP provides prognostic information and predicts long-term risk, even in individuals without prior CVD evidence.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the utility of targeting statin therapy based on elevated hs-CRP levels.
- To assess the effectiveness of statin therapy in patients at increased cardiovascular risk due to hs-CRP, irrespective of cholesterol levels.
Main Methods:
- The study involved the Justification for the Use of statins in Primary prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosvastatin (JUPITER) trial.
- This trial assessed statin therapy in patients identified by elevated hs-CRP but not by traditional risk factors or hypercholesterolemia.
Main Results:
- Elevated hs-CRP levels identify individuals who may benefit from statin therapy.
- Patients with elevated hs-CRP and normal cholesterol showed similar preventive benefits from statins as those with elevated cholesterol.
- Targeting statin therapy based on hs-CRP can improve cardiovascular morbidity and mortality prevention.
Conclusions:
- hs-CRP measurement is a valuable tool for cardiovascular risk screening.
- Utilizing hs-CRP levels to guide preventive statin therapy can enhance cardiovascular disease prevention strategies.
Abstract:
Advances in vascular biology have shown that inflammation plays an integral role in the development of cardiovascular disease. Extensive study of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) has demonstrated that this measure of inflammation predicts cardiovascular risk not reflected by traditional risk factors, adds prognostic information to traditional risk assessment, and predicts long-term cardiovascular risk in individuals with no prior evidence of cardiovascular disease. Patients with elevated hs-CRP levels in the absence of elevated cholesterol appear to derive preventive benefit from statin therapy that is similar in magnitude to that in patients with elevated cholesterol. The large-scale Justification for the Use of statins in Primary prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosvastatin (JUPITER) trial represents a critical study to determine the utility of a strategy for targeting statin therapy to prevent incident cardiovascular disease in patients at increased cardiovascular risk on the basis of elevated hs-CRP who would not be considered candidates for therapy on the basis of hypercholesterolemia or traditional risk assessment. Inclusion of hs-CRP measurement in risk screening and use of this information to guide preventive therapy could result in a marked improvement in prevention of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
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