A single combined measurement of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), LDL-cholesterol and lipoprotein(a) levels in plasma predicts incident cardiovascular events among women over a 30-year follow-up period. This finding, presented at the ESC Congress 2024, supports the need to screen for inflammatory markers and lipoprotein(a) levels, in addition to LDL-cholesterol levels.

The Women’s Health Study involved 27,939 initially healthy women in the USA enrolled during 1992–1995, from whom a baseline blood sample was taken to measure hsCRP, LDL-cholesterol and lipoprotein(a). The investigators hypothesized that a measurement of all three biomarkers at a single timepoint might be predictive of lifetime cardiovascular risk.