Measuring Three Biomarkers Can Predict Women’s 30-Year Risk For Heart Disease, Study Suggests

CNN (8/31, Goodman) reported, “Measuring the levels of three biomarkers in blood in midlife may give women a clearer picture of their risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes decades earlier than current risk calculators do, a new study suggests.” The research “found that these three test results, considered together, could predict cardiovascular risk in seemingly healthy women as much as 30 years before a major cardiovascular event like a heart attack or stroke.” The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the European Society of Cardiology conference. HCPlive (8/31, Campbell) reports, “The study, which leveraged high-sensitivity CRP (hsCRP), LDL cholesterol, and lipoprotein(a)[Lp(a)] levels to predict cardiovascular risk in more than 27,000 healthy women, found each biomarker was associated with independent contributions to cardiovascular risk, with the models using all 3 biomarkers proving the most valuable for risk stratification.” Also covering the story are Healio (9/1, Kalvaitis) and NBC News (8/31, Sullivan).