Significant Increase In hsCRP Research Articles

Association between Protein Bound Sialic Acid and High Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein in Prehypertension: A Possible Indication of Underlying Cardiovascular Risk

The global burden posed by cardiovascular disease due to a rising incidence of known risk factors like essential hypertension underlines an urgent need to identify other potential risk factors like dyslipidemia, elevated levels of high-sensitivity CRP (hsCRP), Apo-B, and sialic acid in prehypertensive subjects. This study sought to examine the possible alteration in the levels of hsCRP, plasma protein bound sialic acid, and other lipid risk factors and the possible interactions among these parameters in prehypertensive subjects. Forty prehypertensive and 34 normotensive male subjects were enrolled in the study. Lipid profile, hsCRP, Apo-B, sialic acid, and lipid risk ratios were estimated in both the groups. There was no significant difference between fasting glucose and BMI in either group. The levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, direct LDL-cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol, and Apo-B were significantly increased in prehypertensive subjects compared with controls. The risk ratios calculated as direct LDL-cholesterol/Apo-B, total cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol, non-HDL-cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol were significantly elevated in prehypertensive subjects. There was also a significant increase in hsCRP and protein bound sialic acid in prehypertensive subjects in comparison with normotensive subjects. Correlation analysis revealed a significant association between the protein bound sialic acid with hsCRP, LDL cholesterol, and LDL-C/Apo-B. The findings of the present study suggest that in prehypertension, there is an association between protein bound sialic acid and hsCRP that reflects the clustering of cardiovascular risk factors in these subjects.

Long-Term Prognostic Significance of High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein Before and After Coronary Angioplasty in Patients With Stable Angina Pectoris

We examined whether an increase in high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) predicts long-term prognosis in patients with stable angina pectoris. hs-CRP is an inflammatory marker that predicts future cardiovascular events in healthy subjects and patients with unstable and stable coronary syndromes. Long-term evaluation of pre- and postprocedural inflammatory markers has not been widely reported. In particular, the effect of the magnitude of increase in hs-CRP after PCI in stable patients is unknown. We prospectively analyzed 89 stable patients treated by PCI for stable angina pectoris. Patients were recruited between August 1998 and May 1999, and the population was followed until August 2005 (mean follow-up 79.5 +/- 10.3 months). A major adverse cardiac event (MACE) was defined as the occurrence of cardiac death, myocardial infarction, or recurrent angina requiring repeat PCI or coronary artery bypass grafting. During the follow-up period, 36 patients presented with > or =1 MACE. In multivariate analysis, independent predictors of the occurrence of MACEs were previous myocardial infarction and a significant increase in hs-CRP after PCI (p = 0.004 and 0.003, respectively). A significant increase in hs-CRP after PCI was found to be more predictive of MACEs than hs-CRP before and after PCI. In conclusion, in stable coronary artery disease, inflammation is associated with long-term adverse events, but the magnitude of the inflammatory reaction after PCI appears more predictive than the baseline value.