Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified a new potential risk marker for cardiovascular disease in women. A new study shows an association between low levels of an anti-inflammatory antibody and the risk of heart attack and coronary heart disease. The study, "Antibodies against phosphorylcholine in prediction of cardiovascular disease among women: a population-based prospective cohort study ," is published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology .
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for both women and men in Sweden. However, research on women's heart health has historically been neglected. Women are affected later in life and have more risk factors such as high blood pressure , diabetes, and heart failure .
Now a new study shows how low levels of antibodies to the fatty substance phosphorylcholine, called anti-PC, may be a new independent risk marker for cardiovascular disease in older women . Previous studies have shown that this is the case in men. "We can show that a low level of the natural antibody to phosphorylcholine can be used as a risk marker for cardiovascular disease also in women, independent of previously known risk factors .
"We have previously shown that the antibody has an anti-inflammatory effect, which means that it protects against atherosclerosis, which is a chronic inflammation of the vessel wall," says Johan Frostegård, Professor of Medicine at the Institute of Environmental Medicine and Head of the Immunology.
