[The JUPITER study: background and research hypotheses]

Many large-scale studies demonstrated in aggregate that high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels are a strong, independent predictor of future vascular events and that hsCRP adds prognostic information on risk at all levels of LDL cholesterol, at all levels of the Framingham risk score, and at all levels of the metabolic syndrome. Moreover, hsCRP predicts risk of recurrent coronary events and has important prognostic value in acute coronary ischemia and after coronary interventions. The JUPITER study was aimed to determine whether long-term treatment with rosuvastatin (20 mg/die) will reduce the rate of major adverse cardiovascular events, defined as the combined endpoint of cardiovascular death, stroke, myocardial infarction, hospitalization for unstable angina, or arterial revascularization among individuals with LDL cholesterol levels < 130 mg/dl (3.36 mmol/I) who are at high risk because of an enhanced inflammatory response as indicated by hsCRP levels > 2 mg/I.