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Karl A. Illig, MD

Arch Surg. 2007;142(11):1071.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Mullenix et al, in an accompanying article, measured high-sensitivity CRP levels along with a host of other traditional risk factors in a group of 146 patients undergoing duplex ultrasonography for possible carotid stenosis. They found that CRP levels were higher in patients with than in those without stenoses, and that CRP levels were stronger predictors of stenosis than anything else they measured (including smoking and LDL levels), even when corrected for statin use.

C-reactive protein is today's "hot" molecule. Atherosclerosis is increasingly viewed as an inflammatory process, and CRP seems to be a strong marker of systemic inflammation—the American Heart Association’s position that anyone with a CRP level of greater than 3.0 mg/L is in a "high-risk" category for cardiovascular events.¹

What can we make of these data? Can we simply measure CRP levels and forgo duplex ultrasonography? Of course not, and this is not the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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RELATED ARTICLE

C-reactive Protein Level and Traditional Vascular Risk Factors in the Prediction of Carotid Stenosis
Philip S. Mullenix, Scott R. Steele, Matthew J. Martin, Benjamin W. Starnes, and Charles A. Andersen
Arch Surg. 2007;142(11):1066-1071.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT