CLINICAL UTILITY OF HIGH SENSITIVITY C-REACTIVE PROTEIN

Cardio and cerebrovascular diseases (CVDs) are multifactorial in etiology, and share some common risk factors. No other life–threatening disease is as prevalent or expensive to society as CVDs. It has potentially enormous emotional and socioeconomic consequences for patients, their families, and health services. The Framingham Study showed that 35% of cases of coronary heart disease were in people with normal total cholesterol levels, although the impact of elevated cholesterol on stroke risk has been disputed. These findings point out the need for markers that better predict cardiovascular risk. In the most recent years, special importance is being laid on inflammation in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and its complication. A number of studies have examined various circulating markers of inflammations, thus far studied, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) seem to have the most consistent relation to the risk of CVDs in a variety of clinical settings. This text is particularly emphasized on the clinical significance of hsCRP in health and disease.