Researchers think they may have found a new and improved way to predict a person’s risk of developing cardiovascular risk, sharing their findings in Circulation.
The analysis, written by a group of specialists from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, focused on the anti-inflammatory properties of HDLs, which are often described as the “good” cholesterol. The team, working with colleagues at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, explored data from 369 patients who had originally participated in PREVEND study. All patients showed no signs of cardiovascular disease at the start of the PREVEND study, but experienced their first cardiovascular event over the course of the next several years.
Overall, a patient’s HDL anti-inflammatory capacity was inversely associated with cardiovascular events such as acute myocardial infarctions and ischemic heart disease. High levels of inflammation do damage to a patient’s blood vessels, the team explained, potentially leading to the progression of cardiovascular disease.
In addition, the authors wrote, assessing a patient’s HDL anti-inflammatory capacity and adding that data to existing risk models, including the popular Framingham score, could potentially provide clinicians with additional benefits.
“Our results point to new opportunities for improved cardiovascular risk assessment by using a biologically meaningful functional biomarker for HDL instead of its cholesterol content,” corresponding author Uwe J.F. Tietge, MD, a professor at Karolinska Institute’s department of laboratory medicine, said in a prepared statement. “However, the method for analyzing the anti-inflammatory activity of HDLs is currently rather complex and difficult. Our next goal is therefore to make the method simpler and more clinically implementable.”
Grants from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research and Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation helped fund this research.
Read the full study here.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.