CRP And Homocysteine Inflammation Markers, How Do They Relate To Coronary Artery Disease? - Dr. Lyle

Dr. Lyle:
CRP is a marker of inflammation. It stands for C-reactive protein. Homocysteine is another marker of inflammation. It is believed that coronary disease is a disease process of inflammation.

It’s a chronic inflammatory disease condition and that looking at markers of generalized inflammation have been shown to be linked to increased levels of coronary artery disease. So that’s why looking at a CRP in particular has been helpful in helping to find somebody’s risk for coronary disease.

There was a recent trial that came out called the Jupiter trial and it was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in November 2008, and it was a test done looking at people that had elevated CRP levels greater than two who did not have coronary disease and who had relatively, what are considered to be, normal LDL or bad cholesterol levels.

It was found that by treating these people with a cholesterol lowering medicine, and in this trial they particularly used CRESTOR®, helped markedly reduce their incidence of coronary disease and the trial was ultimately stopped early as a result of it. So there is some benefit to knowing what your CRP level is as well as the homocysteine.

It’s over 50% of people or approximately 50% of people who develop coronary disease don’t have treatable cholesterol levels. So, we have to feel that there is something else that’s explaining it. It is thought that this process of generalized inflammation may be responsible for the beginnings of atherosclerosis whether your cholesterol level is normal or abnormal and the Jupiter trial gets to the heart of this question.

About Dr. Brian Lyle, M.D.:
Brian Lyle, M.D., obtained his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Boston University and graduated from the MCP Hahnemann University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After medical school he completed an internal medicine residency at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. and a cardiology fellowship at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Conn. where he was the chief cardiology fellow. He is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular medicine and nuclear medicine.

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• Coronary Artery Disease