Paul Ridker discusses trend of coronary inflammation is shaping future of cardiovascular risk reduction

A new frontier in cardiovascular medicine is emerging with inflammation, not cholesterol, taking center stage as a key component in the prevention of heart disease. Paul Ridker, MD, MPH, the Eugene Braunwald Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, spoke with Cardiovascular Business about how coronary inflammation is reshaping how clinicians evaluate and reduce long-term cardiovascular risk.

Ridker emphasized the transformative potential of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), a biomarker for inflammation, in predicting and managing cardiovascular disease.

“We've known for 30 years that inflammation and hyperlipidemia conspire with each other to really drive atherosclerotic disease,” Ridker explained. “What’s changed is, we now have both a reliable biomarker and therapeutic proof of principle that we can target inflammation per se and lower cardiovascular event rates just like we target LDL cholesterol and lower cardiovascular event rates."