As a researcher, when I first saw the title of this article I cringed because the title makes it sound like inflammation is a poor predictor of heart attack. I've been in cardiovascular research for 15+ years and its well-documented that inflammation is involved in cardiovascular disease.

After reading further, I now see that they are speaking to an inflammation test called hsCRP. As mentioned in the article, The Jupiter Trial has received a lot of press lately. This trial documented the clinical benefit of measuring hsCRP levels for the prediction of heart attack and stroke.

From my perspective, hsCRP is a great marker of inflammation; however, it is just a general marker of inflammation. I could slip and fall on an icy sidewalk and my hsCRP levels would go up! So, as a researcher I think it is important to not only know if inflammation exists, but also where it exists.

Many studies document the combined use of markers for the prediction of heart attack. And from many years of research, we now have an expanded list of markers that physicians can choose from to determine their patient's risk.

The key is knowing what the markers tell you! hsCRP is a good marker because it measures inflammation within the body. But, there are other inflammation markers such as Lp-PLA2 and myeloperoxidase which are vascular-specific and can provide a much better understanding of your risk for heart attack. In particular, Lp-PLA2 contributes to plaque accumulation in the arteries while myeloperoxidase contributes to plaque vulnerability or the likelihood that you will have a heart attack.

So, measuring hsCRP is great to determine if you have elevated levels of inflammation in your body, but if you really want to know if the inflammation in your body is cardiovascular-related or if you will have a heart attack in the near future, you probably should have your Lp-PLA2 and myeloperoxidase levels checked!