[High sensivity C-reactive protein as a complement to classical methods in the evaluation of coronary event's risk]

Recent years have brought many new advances concerning etiology and pathology of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular risk. However, there are still researches taking place to improve currently used Scales of Cardiovascular Risk, which introduce novel biomarkers of inflammatory process, hemostasis or oxidative stress in order to identify individuals who are the most endangered group of cardiovascular event. This study's aim was to review existing cardiovascular risk factors and risk assessment scales and to confront their clinical usefulness with novel biomarkers emerging in this field with special respect to high sensivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP). Existing cardiovascular risk assessment scales seem not to be endangered in their prognostic role mainly due to crucial role of individual medical history in diagnosis ischaemic heart disease and evaluating the cardiovascular risk. For the time being, despite many novelties appearing in cardiovascular risk evaluation, only hsCRP has unarguably proven prognostic ability in terms of coronary events and may have addictive informative power towards existing cardiovascular risk scales. The level of hsCRP < 1 mg/l should be interpreted as low cardiovascular risk (CVR), 1-3 mg/I as moderate CVR and > 3 mg/I as high CVR. Unfortunately, hsCRP is unpopular and not widely used in standard biochemical tests in Polish hospitals in patients with ischaemic heart disease.