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The latest finding from BWH’s renowned TIMI trials was the center of a flurry of media attention last week. Published in the January 6 issue of New England Journal of Medicine, study results indicated that statin drugs’ ability to combat levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) in one’s blood is just as important as the drugs’ role in reducing cholesterol.
The finding has prompted researchers to recommend that in addition to regular cholesterol checks, monitoring and managing CRP needs to be part of the care regimen for patients with heart disease. CRP—measured by a simple, inexpensive blood test—is a marker of inflammation in the bloodstream that is produced in the liver when arteries become inflamed.
“We are on the threshold of viewing CRP not only as a marker for risk, but as a target for therapy,” said Principal Investigator Paul Ridker, MD, director of BWH’s Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention.
This finding is the latest in a collection of important related findings from the multi-national Pravastatin or Atorvastatin Evaluation and Infection Therapy – Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (PROVE IT – TIMI 22) study.
It was the work of Ridker and his team that first influenced a groundbreaking change to the federal guidelines for assessing cardiovascular disease in 2003. The guidelines were altered to recommend that physicians consider use of CRP testing on patients at moderate risk of heart disease.
The recently published finding was based on data from nearly 3,800 patients in the PROVE IT-TIMI 22 trial. The clinical outcomes of patients treated with statin therapy were linked not only to lowering LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, but also to lowering CRP levels. Specifically, patients who had low CRP levels after statin treatment did significantly better than those with high CRP levels, regardless of the level of LDL cholesterol attained.
News of this important finding was featured in The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Washington Post, US News and World Report, NBC's The Today Show, ABC World News Tonight, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal.