Protein may signal heart problems. (Biomedicine).A protein already linked to inflammation is also a strong predictor of heart problems, a new study suggests. Researchers tracked the health of 27,939 outwardly healthy women over an average of 8 years. The 20 percent of women in the group with the highest concentrations of the protein, called C-reactive protein (CRP C-reactive protein (CRP) A protein present in blood serum in various abnormal states, like inflammation. Mentioned in: Pelvic Inflammatory Disease CRP, n.pr See C-reactive protein. ), were three times as likely to have a heart attack during the study as women with the lowest CRP were. In contrast, women with excess low-density-lipoprotein (LDL LDL - ["LDL: A Logic-Based Data-Language", S. Tsur et al, Proc VLDB 1986, Kyoto Japan, Aug 1986, pp.33-41]. ) cholesterol--a commonly measured risk factor for heart problems--faced a heart attack risk only 1.4 times that of the group with the lowest LDL, reports a team led by Paul M. Ridker of Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University. It is a prestigious American medical school located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. and Brigham and Women's Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is a hospital in the Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill. With Massachusetts General Hospital, it is one of the two founding members of Partners HealthCare. in Boston. Moreover, women with high CRP and low LDL were at greater cardiac risk than were those with low CRP and high LDL, the scientists report in the Nov. 14 New England Journal of Medicine The New England Journal of Medicine (New Engl J Med or NEJM) is an English-language peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is one of the most popular and widely-read peer-reviewed general medical journals in the world. . The finding suggests that CRP could become an. important additional predictor of heart ailments, the scientists conclude.--N.S. |
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