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Enlarge ImageEvolving evidence. In a massive study, C-reactive protein didn’t boost the risk of heart attacks.Credit: Wikipedia A new study may be the last word in a controversy that's plagued cardiovascular disease research for years: whether a marker of inflammation known as C-reactive protein (CRP) drives heart attacks and strokes. In a survey of more than 128,000 people, researchers have found that genes that raise CRP levels don't make cardiovascular disease more likely. Although the study arrives at the same conclusion as earlier work, its massive size makes it statistically the most powerful test yet of this question and...

Measured by a simple blood test, c-reactive protein (CRP) has vexed scientists for years. People with elevated CRP levels tend to be at higher risk of a heart attack, but does that mean the protein is causing arteries to clog and these people require medication? A study of nearly 51,000 people in Denmark says no. Although the study is far from the last word, researchers say it will likely shift the debate about how to use CRP in guiding treatment. The work also underscores a relatively new way to uncover a single factor's influence on disease: by isolating it genetically...

Source: Harvard School of Public Health Date: January 17, 2007 Link Found Between Periodontal Disease And Pancreatic Cancer Science Daily — Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the U.S.; more than 30,000 Americans are expected to die from the disease this year. It is an extremely difficult cancer to treat and little is known about what causes it. One established risk factor in pancreatic cancer is cigarette smoking; other links have been made to obesity, diabetes type 2 and insulin resistance. In a new study, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and...

HOUSTON (Sept. 16, 2005) - Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston have found that human fat cells produce a protein that is linked to both inflammation and an increased risk of heart disease and stroke. They say the discovery, reported in Journal of the American College of Cardiology, goes a long way to explain why people who are overweight generally have higher levels of the molecule, known as C-reactive protein (CRP), which is now used diagnostically to predict future cardiovascular events. And they also report...

When Richard Newton read in a magazine last year that high levels of a protein called CRP were as powerful as high cholesterol in predicting heart disease risk, he went to his doctor to be tested. Mr. Newton, a 60-year-old retired electrician in Lynnfield, Mass., assumed that his level of CRP (the letters stand for C-reactive protein) would be low, just like his cholesterol level. His overall health was good. He did not take any prescription drugs and had normal blood pressure. And although he smoked, he was not overweight and he exercised every day, playing tennis or spending an...

A new and emerging understanding of how heart attacks occur indicates that increasingly popular aggressive treatments may be doing little or nothing to prevent them. The artery-opening methods, like bypass surgery and stents, the widely used wire cages that hold plaque against an artery wall, can alleviate crushing chest pain. Stents can also rescue someone in the midst of a heart attack by destroying an obstruction and holding the closed artery open. But the new model of heart disease shows that the vast majority of heart attacks do not originate with obstructions that narrow arteries. Instead, recent and continuing studies...