Increased levels of the inflammatory biomarker high-sensitivity C-reactive protein predict cardiovascular events. Since statins lower levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein as well as cholesterol, we hypothesized that people with elevated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels but without hyperlipidemia might benefit from statin treatment.
“That is a larger reduction in the things that we care the most about — morbidity and mortality — than we've ever seen in a statin trial. And it occurred very quickly, in only 1.9 years of average duration of treatment.”
Ridker et al. (Sun,) studied this question.