Bad cholesterol levels were reduced by 50 percent and hs-CRP levels dropped 37 percent.
CNN: Study: Cholesterol drugs could help those with healthy levels
Apart from hs-CRP, scientists are looking at mouth bacteria as another possible link between gum disease and heart disease.
Those with good cholesterol levels typically don't have their hs-CRP levels tested because there are no clear guidelines on who should be tested and how often.
CNN: Study: Cholesterol drugs could help those with healthy levels
But he suggested that before changing any guidelines, more research needs to be done to determine the effectiveness of testing people for hs-CRP levels, something this study was not designed to do.
CNN: Study: Cholesterol drugs could help those with healthy levels
The study's statistician, Harvard University's Robert Glynn, estimates that about 250, 000 heart attacks, strokes, hospitalizations and cardiac deaths could be prevented over five years if people with good cholesterol and high hs-CRP levels were taking statins.
CNN: Study: Cholesterol drugs could help those with healthy levels
Your doctor may start you on aspirin therapy -- though it's unclear why, aspirin seems to disrupt the link between CRP levels and cardiac events -- or, more likely, a statin.
That would put the firm among the top 10 biggest spenders on lobbying in 2007--among the ranks of General Motors, Freddie Mac and Boeing--according to CRP's most recent lobbying analysis.
That would put the firm among the top 10 biggest spenders on lobbying in 2007--among the ranks of General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ), Freddie Mac (nyse: FRE - news - people ) and Boeing (nyse: BA - news - people )--according to CRP's most recent lobbying analysis.
When combined with Zocor in Vytorin, Zetia does lower C-reactive protein (CRP), which doctors use to try and measure artery inflammation.
However, if you have other indicators for inflammation, such as elevated levels of C-reactive proteines or CRP, it might be worth discussing the possibility with your doctor.
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And he says imaging studies like ENHANCE have not been proven to be any more meaningful that reductions in LDL or C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation.
If the FDA adopts the panel's recommendation -- the agency isn't required to do so, but typically does in such cases -- it would mark the first time that a statin was approved for heart-disease-free people with healthy cholesterol levels but other risk factors, including high levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation.
CNN: FDA considers statin use for those with normal cholesterol
In Ridker's study, patients with high bad cholesterol, or low-density lipoprotein and high CRP had heart attacks, strokes or heart procedures 9.9% of the time compared with 4.9% of the time for patients where both risks were low.
Cholesterol is clearly not the only risk factor for cardiovascular disease -- half of all heart attacks occur in people with normal levels of LDL, or bad cholesterol -- but the accuracy of CRP as a predictor of cardiac risk has been disputed.
CNN: FDA considers statin use for those with normal cholesterol
According to the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), a group that tracks special-interest spending, more than 476 organizations lobbied on Capitol Hill for agriculture issues in 2006.
But this study of patients recruited decades ago in Reykjavik, Iceland--many of whom had died of heart attacks--showed that high levels of CRP did not confer as great an increase in risk as many expected.
Ridker is conducting a study with Crestor, the new statin from AstraZeneca (nyse: AZN - news - people ), to see if treating people with high CRP but low LDL has a benefit.
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