Scientists announced on Saturday that they have developed a simple blood test capable of predicting 30-year cardiovascular disease risks for women.
Supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US, the research revealed that measuring two types of fat in the bloodstream, along with C-reactive protein (CRP)—a marker of inflammation—can predict a woman’s long-term risk of cardiovascular disease.
“We can’t treat what we don’t measure, and we hope these findings move the field closer to identifying even earlier ways to detect and prevent heart disease,” said Paul M. Ridker, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved collecting blood samples and medical information from 27,939 US-based healthcare providers who participated in the Women’s Health Study.
The women, who enrolled in the study between 1992 and 1995 at an average age of 55, were monitored for 30 years.
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Over this period, 3,662 participants experienced a heart attack, stroke, surgery to restore circulation, or a cardiovascular-related death.
Researchers evaluated how high-sensitivity CRP, along with low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and lipoprotein(a)—a lipid partly composed of LDL—individually and collectively predicted these events.
When all three markers were considered together, participants with the highest levels had more than a 1.5-times increased associated risk for stroke and more than a 3-times increased associated risk for coronary heart disease compared to women with the lowest levels.
Although only women were included in this study, researchers expect to find similar results in men.