Two markers may predict heart risk.Two proteins that play a role in inflammation may serve as indicators of a person's risk of heart disease and stroke. The immune system immune system Cells, cell products, organs, and structures of the body involved in the detection and destruction of foreign invaders, such as bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. Immunity is based on the system's ability to launch a defense against such invaders. proteins, called interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha Tumor necrosis factor (TNF, cachexin or cachectin and formally known as tumor necrosis factor-alpha) is a cytokine involved in systemic inflammation and is a member of a group of cytokines that all stimulate the acute phase reaction. (TNF-alpha), help orchestrate the body's response to injury. Physician Matteo Cesari of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine Wake Forest University School of Medicine, along with North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University Physicians, is part of the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center system. in Winston-Salem, N.C., and his colleagues analyzed blood samples from 2,225 healthy people, all in their 70s. After an average follow-up period of 316 years, 188 of the participants had been newly diagnosed with heart disease, 92 had developed congestive heart failure congestive heart failure, inability of the heart to expel sufficient blood to keep pace with the metabolic demands of the body. In the healthy individual the heart can tolerate large increases of workload for a considerable length of time. , and 60 had had strokes. The researchers found that, on average, people who encountered the heart problems had started the study with significantly higher blood concentrations of interleukin-6 and TNF-alpha than did participants who remained healthy. Higher interleukin-6 also correlated with higher stroke risk, the researchers report in the Nov. 11 Circulation. The researchers say that although the two proteins' roles in heart disease and stroke aren't clear, measuring them in a person's blood could prove to be a better indicator of Such problems than is measuring C-reactive protein C-Reactive Protein Definition C-reactive protein (CRP) is a protein produced by the liver and found in the blood. Purpose C-reactive protein is not normally found in the blood of healthy people. , another inflammation-related compound that physicians consider a strong indicator of heart disease risk. The new results on the proteins' diagnostic potential should spur researchers to develop better methods for measuring them in blood, Cesari says.--N.S. |
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