Background:
C-reactive protein (crp) predicts risk of myocardial infarction (mi) and stroke among apparently healthy men, but in women, virtually no data are available.
Methods and results:
Crp was measured in baseline blood samples from 122 apparently healthy participants in the women's health study who subsequently suffered a first cardiovascular event and from 244 age- and smoking-matched control subjects who remained free of cardiovascular disease during a 3-year follow-up period. women who developed cardiovascular events had higher baseline crp levels than control subjects (p=0.0001), such that those with the highest levels at baseline had a 5-fold increase in risk of any vascular event (rr=4.8; 95% ci, 2.3 to 10.1; p=0.0001) and a 7-fold increase in risk of mi or stroke (rr=7.3; 95% ci, 2.7 to 19.9; p=0.0001). risk estimates were independent of other risk factors, and prediction models that included crp provided a better method to predict risk than models that excluded crp (all p values <0.01). in stratified analyses, crp was a predictor among subgroups of women with low as well as high risk as defined by other cardiovascular risk factors.
Conclusions:
In these prospective data among women, crp is a strong independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease that adds to the predictive value of risk models based on usual factors alone. (circulation. 1998;98:731-733.)