Inflammatory Markers of Coronary Risk

The past decade has been characterized by growing interest in the idea that atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease1 and by the finding that serum levels of markers of inflammation can be used to predict the risk of cardiovascular events.2 In this issue of the Journal are two reports — one by Lindahl et al.3 and one by Packard et al.4 — that advance our knowledge of these areas. Both studies made use of clinical trials to address whether levels of serum-based inflammatory markers were predictive of cardiovascular events.Lindahl et al.3 addressed whether serum levels of cardiac troponin T, C-reactive . . .