News: Long-term study correlates biomarkers with 30-year female cardiovascular health

A new clinical study suggests that a combination of three factors—high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), LDL cholesterol, and lipoprotein(a), or lp(a)—can accurately predict women’s 30-year risk for both coronary heart disease and stroke, MedPage Today recently reported.

The study examined a cohort of 39,876 female healthcare professionals between 1992 and 1995, systematically tracking their data up until January 2023. According to the authors of the report, while each factor “contributed to overall risk prediction,” the “greatest spread for risk was in models that incorporated all three biomarkers together.”

"Each biomarker provided additive information to the other two biomarkers, such that the combination of all three provided the greatest magnitude of spread for long-term risk stratification," Paul Ridker, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, told MedPage Today.

According to the study, the elevation in 30-year risk from being in the top versus bottom quartile was:

• 70%: hsCRP
• 36%: LDL cholesterol
• 33%: lp(a)

The researchers concluded that their finding "that a single measure of high-sensitivity CRP strongly predicted risk over a 30-year period should provide reassurance for clinicians who do not routinely measure this inflammatory biomarker because of concerns with respect to variability over time."

Editor’s note: To read the MedPage Today coverage, click here.