The role and clinical significance of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in cardiovascular disease.

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Copyright © 2012 The Korean Society of Cardiology
Korean Circulation Journal
Refer to the page 164-172
Atherosclerosis, the leading cause of cardiovascular disease, is
characterized by chronic inflammation in the artery wall. It has been
considered for decades that this disease is associated with hyper-
cholesterolemia and the accumulation of macrophage-derived
foamy cells in the arterial wall. While inflammation is involved in in-
itiation, progression, and complication of the atherosclerotic pro-
cess, the exact mechanisms underlying this inflammatory process
remains unclear as yet.
C-reactive protein (CRP) is a homopentameric acute-phase pro-
tein produced by the liver and binds specifically to phosphorylcho-
line in a Ca2+-dependent manner. Its levels rise dramatically during
inflammation that occurs in the body. This increment of CRP is due
to a rise in the plasma concentration of interleukin-6 (IL-6), pro-
duced predominantly by macrophages1) and adipocytes.2) During
the acute phase response, CRP levels increased rapidly within 2 ho-
urs of acute insult, rise above normal limits within 6 hours, and peak
at 48 hours. With resolution of the acute phase response, CRP de-
clines with a half-life of 18 hours. CRP can rise up to 50000-fold in
acute inflammation, such as during infection. Its level is mainly de-
termined by its rate of production because of its constant half-life.
One exception is that the CRP elevations in the absence of clinically
significant inflammation can occur in renal failure.
Editorial
http://dx.doi.org/10.4070/kcj.2012.42.3.151
Print ISSN 1738-5520 • On-line ISSN 1738-5555
The Role and Clinical Significance of High-Sensitivity
C-Reactive Protein in Cardiovascular Disease
Hong Seog Seo, MD
Cardiovascular Center, Korea University College of Medicine, Guro Hospital, Seoul, Korea
Correspondence: Hong Seog Seo, MD, Cardiovascular Center, Korea Univer-
sity College of Medicine, Guro Hospital, 148 Gurodong-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul 152-
703, Korea
Tel: 82-2-2626-3018, Fax: 82-2-2626-1069
E-mail: mdhsseo@korea.ac.kr
• The author has no financial conflicts of interest.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work
is properly cited.
C-reactive protein is a general nonspecific marker for inflamma-
tion and infection, so it can be used as a very rough proxy for the
risk of cardiovascular disease. Since many factors can be associated
with an elevated CRP level, this is not a very specific prognostic in-
dicator. Nevertheless, a CRP level above 2.4 mg/L has been associat-
ed with a doubled risk of a coronary event compared to CRP levels
below 1 mg/L.1) Nowadays, we consider CRP as an important risk mar-
ker for cardiovascular disease in addition to being a prototypical
marker of underlying inflammation. Patients with high CRP concen-
trations are more likely to develop stroke, myocardial infarction, and
significant peripheral vascular disease. Moreover, a study showed
that trans-fat consumption is related to high blood levels of CRP.3)
However, studies did not show always consistent regarding the
clinical significance of CRP on cardiovascular disease. The Reykjavik
Study indicated that CRP may be a moderate risk factor for cardio-
vascular disease,4) and there were several studies showing a mod-
est to minimal association between CRP and future cardiovascular
events.5)6) This is partially dependent upon the individual’s status
such as age, sex, number of risk factors, and metabolic conditions.
It is a significant issue to clarify whether CRP is a simple bystan-
der or an active participant in atherogenesis. Zacho et al.7) com-
pared people with various genetic CRP variants. Those with a high
CRP due to genetic variation had no increased risk of cardiovascular
disease as compared to those with a normal or low CRP. Although
some controversies exist, several studies have demonstrated that
CRP is not only an inflammatory marker, but also an inflammatory
mediator acting on vascular cells. A recent study showing the nov-
el evidence for the pro-inflammatory action of CRP involved in ath-
erogenesis reported that CRP is able to stimulate IL-6 production
and inhibit PPARγ expression in vascular smooth muscle cells via
MyD88-independent toll-like receptor-4 signaling pathway. An-
other study revealed a role for CRP in promoting differentiation of
human monocytes toward a proinflammatory M1 phenotype.8)
It is intriguing as to whether the inhibition of CRP increase can
be a safe and effective therapy for myocardial and cerebral infarc-

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tion, but this has been demonstrated in an animal study.9) Statins
have been proven to reduce levels of CRP; this finding is based on
the JUPITER study that tested that statin administration was bene-
ficial to subjects with elevated CRP levels, who did not have hyper-
lipidemia.10) In the JUPITER study, a total of 17802 healthy individu-
als with low density lipoprotein-cholesterol level less than 130 mg
per deciliter and elevated CRP levels of ≥2.0 mg per liter, investiga-
tors showed that 20 mg rosuvastatin significantly reduced the pri-
mary end point - a composite of nonfatal myocardial infarction, non-
fatal stroke, hospitalization for unstable angina, revascularization,
and confirmed death from cardiovascular causes - by 44% compared
with individuals treated with placebo. However, the amount of the
absolute benefit and cost-effectiveness were very small. Moreover,
a subsequent trial failed to prove that CRP was useful for determin-
ing the clinical benefit of statins, despite of 40 mg simvastatin for
5.5 years.11)
Despite this evidence regarding the role of CRP in atherosclerotic
vascular diseases, we still cannot use the CPR test for routine clini-
cal practice to measure the current status of cardiovascular risk. Be-
cause there are a variety of conditions that can increase CRP pro-
duction, an elevated CRP level alone itself does not diagnose or
predict a specific cardiovascular disease. An elevated CRP level can
support only for the presence of an inflammatory disease, regard-
less of its mechanism. This is one of reasons why the American He-
art Association (AHA) limited the clinical utility of CRP in real world
clinical practice. The AHA has stated that high sensitivity C-reac-
tive protein (hs-CRP) may be useful in evaluating those persons at
moderate risk for heart disease and determine whether or not
more intensive treatment is warranted. Those at high risk should
be treated aggressively regardless of their hs-CRP level. The AHA
does not recommend hs-CRP testing as routine screening for peo-
ple who are not at high risk for heart disease.
In this issue of the Journal, Jeong et al.12) performed a novel study
to test the relationship between the baseline hs-CRP level and 12-
month clinical outcomes in 8174 patients with acute myocardial
infarction (AMI) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention
(PCI) according to their body mass index status. Higher baseline
hs-CRP level (≥4.08 mg/dL) in overweight/obese AMI patients sh-
owed significant association with 12-month all-cause mortality
independent of other prognostic markers, but individuals with nor-
mal- or under-weight did not have a significant association of se-
rum hs-CRP level with 12-month mortality, though this cohort con-
sisted of only patients with AMI. Baseline hs-CRP in patients with
AMI might be associated with vascular inflammation with athero-
sclerosis, myocardial necrosis, and remote inflammation related to
underlying risk factors. All of these factors can negatively impact
on future cardiovascular outcomes, but mechanisms of different
factors can be quite diverse. Inflammation by myocardial necrosis
is usually transient but vascular inflammation with atherosclerosis
and remote inflammation due to underlying risk factors can be per-
sistent and more longstanding. Of these, vascular inflammation
associated with AMI itself could be reduced with standard medical
therapy following PCI. However, inflammation related to innate
risk factors, such as obesity, is hard to control with only standard
medical therapy. More aggressive lifestyle modification would be
required with standard medical therapy. All of these efforts might
be very helpful to prevent future cardiovascular events by control-
ling the source of chronic inflammation.
The result of this study may further suggest that a CRP test result
can be a surrogate prognostic marker for the patients with defini-
tive risk factors associated with chronic inflammation such as obe-
sity or diabetes. In overweight/obese AMI patients undergoing PCI,
if the residual risks related to inflammation persist, I would like to
prescribe the highest tolerable statin as recommended by the EAS/
ESC guideline 2011 in addition to lifestyle modification.13) Those pa-
tients with normal- or under-weight also may have residual risks,
but the degree of chronic inflammation and its clinical significance
is not clear yet in this population. One possible explanation is that
atherosclerotic progress is associated with multifactorial causes.
There are several ways of research to clarify the mechanism. One is
to develop more specific serologic markers, such as lipoprotein-as-
sociated phospholipase A2, and another is molecular imaging to vi-
sualize the vulnerable lesion for proper evaluation of residual car-
diovascular risks. But, this result from KAMIR study shows that mea-
surement of CRP can be a very helpful and a cost-effective method to
predict future cardiovascular outcome in a specific group of patients.
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