OBJECTIVES We investigated whether a multiple biomarkers strategy that includes plasma levels of endothelium-derived microparticles (EMP), reflecting endothelial dysfunction, can improve prediction of future cardiovascular events in patients at high risk for coronary heart disease (CHD). BACKGROUND Detailed risk stratification using multiple biomarkers can provide clinical benefits in high-ri...

Commonly held dietary guidelines discourage full-fat dairy consumption due its to high levels of saturated fatty acids, which are believed to aversely influence cardiovascular disease risk. Cardiovascular diseases cause more than one third of deaths in the developed world. With dairy often providing a large part of energy and nutrients in Western diets, research into its effects on human health...

Several epidemiological and clinical studies have evaluated the effects of a Mediterranean diet (Med-Diet) on total cardiovascular mortality, and all concluded that adherence to the traditional Med-Diet is associated with reduced cardiovascular risk. However, the molecular mechanisms involved are not fully understood. Since atherosclerosis is nowadays considered a low-grade inflammatory disease...

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, a biomarker is ‘a distinctive biological or biologically derived indicator (as a metabolite) of a process, event, or condition (as aging, disease, or oil formation)’ [1]. A biomarker can be structural, such as mammography or a coronary calcium scan, or functional, such as glomerular filtration rate or blood pressure, but the term biomarker is ...

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular disease is one of the major causes of death worldwide. Assessing the risk for cardiovascular disease is an important aspect in clinical decision making and setting a therapeutic strategy, and the use of serological biomarkers may improve this. Despite an overwhelming number of studies and meta-analyses on biomarkers and cardiovascular disease, there are no comprehensiv...

The use of biomarkers has proven utility in cardiovascular medicine and holds great promise for future advances, but their application requires considerable rigor in thinking and methodology. Numerous confounding factors can cloud the clinical and investigative uses of biomarkers. Yet, the thoughtful and critical use of biomarkers can doubtless aid discovery of new pathogenic pathways, identify...

Various biomarkers express different pathways and pathophysiologic mechanisms of cardiovascular disease, such as inflammation, oxidative stress, myocardial injury, activation of the neurohormonal pathways, myocardial stress and renal function. Current thinking supports the notion that the combination of these biomarkers could increase their diagnostic and prognostic value. The multimarker appro...

BACKGROUND Circulating biomarkers can offer insight into subclinical cardiovascular stress and thus have the potential to aid in risk stratification and tailoring of therapy. METHODS AND RESULTS We measured plasma levels of 4 cardiovascular biomarkers, midregional pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP), midregional pro-adrenomedullin (MR-proADM), C-terminal pro-endothelin-1 (CT-proET-1), ...