Inflammation and Coronary Artery Disease: Editorial
Gundu H Rao
ABSTRACT
Growing evidence supports a central role for inflammation in the initiation, progression, and clinical manifestations of coronary artery disease (CAD). While traditional cardiovascular risk factors such as dyslipidemia, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and smoking remain major contributors to atherosclerosis, many of their adverse effects are mediated through inflammatory pathways. This makes assessing inflammatory pathways crucial for accurately predicting risk of atherosclerosis and heart attacks. Despite the critical role of inflammation in cardiovascular health, routine physicals rely solely on basic lipid panels rather than specific inflammatory biomarkers. Recent clinical trials targeting inflammation, including CANTOS, COLCOT, and LoDoCo2, have demonstrated that modulation of inflammatory responses can reduce cardiovascular events independently of lipid lowering. These findings have strengthened the concept of CAD as a chronic inflammatory disease. Nevertheless, important uncertainties remain regarding the identification of causal inflammatory pathways, optimal biomarkers, patient selection, and long-term safety of anti-inflammatory therapies. These editorial reviews current evidence linking inflammation and CAD, highlights recent therapeutic advances, and discusses future directions for precision cardiovascular medicine.
