Aims: To evaluate the hypothesis that angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor therapy with ramipril reduces baseline levels of C-reactive protein in patients at high cardiovascular risk.
Methods: Secondary prevention patients were screened for eligibility and treated with ramipril for 6 month. Baseline and 6-month highly sensitive C-reactive protein levels were determined.
Results: A total of 77 patients were analyzed. The median highly sensitive C-reactive protein concentration at baseline was 2.17 mg/l (interquartile interval 0.97-4.54); whereas in post-treatment, the median was 1.70 mg/l (interquartile interval 0.88-3.41), P=0.0009. Patients were stratified according to risk level determined by baseline highly sensitive C-reactive protein levels: low-risk (<1 mg/l), intermediate risk (1-3 mg/l) and high risk (>3 mg/l) The reduction in highly sensitive C-reactive protein occurred at the expense of the high-risk group (baseline 5.02 mg/l, post-treatment 3.3 mg/l, P<0.0001), with no differences in the other groups. In multiple regression analysis, the reduction observed in the high-risk group could not be explained by baseline treatment or change in any of the variables analyzed.
Conclusion: Highly sensitive C-reactive protein levels were reduced after a 6-month ramipril therapy in secondary prevention patients, suggesting an anti-inflammatory effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors. Future investigations will be done to confirm these results, and to investigate how angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor treatment elicits anti-inflammatory effects.