The highest-inflammation fifth of 480,000 UK adults had 43% more heart attacks and strokes

The 43% compares two fifths of the cohort with each other. The top 20% of glycoprotein acetyls values against the bottom 20%, which at nearly 480,000 participants works out at roughly 96,000 people in each group, and leaves the middle 60% of the cohort outside the comparison ^{[1][3][16][17]}.

It is a relative risk. The report does not state absolute event rates, the length of follow-up, or how many participants had cardiac imaging ^[9]. A 43% increase on a small baseline risk and the same increase on a large one are different numbers of heart attacks, and prevention programmes are costed on the number of events. The same 43% turns up in a second analysis, covering people whose inflammation stayed elevated over time and who had no previously existing heart disease ^[7].

Chronic inflammation here means mild immune activation that persists instead of switching off once an immediate threat has passed ^[8]. Who carries it is as informative as the hazard ratio. Inflammation was strongly associated with socioeconomic disadvantage and psychological distress, and smoking and excess body fat were linked to higher levels as well ^[5][6]. A blood marker that moves with deprivation, distress, smoking and body fat is partly restating exposures a clinic already records. The authors put their central finding as a suggestion that inflammation "may contribute" to harmful changes in the heart's structure ^[15].

Declan O'Regan, who holds the British Heart Foundation Chair of Cardiovascular AI at Imperial College London and heads the Computational Cardiac Imaging Group at the LMS ^[18], said the work "suggests that millions of people could be living with hidden inflammation, which is slowly changing their heart and causing long-term damage" ^[11]. On the social findings he said: "The surprising thing was how much social factors and mental health are linked to inflammation and damage to the heart" ^[12]. He also described a genetic component: "There was also a strong genetic factor, with some people being naturally more resilient or susceptible to the inflammatory damage that comes from different lifestyles" ^[19].

The laboratory's summary, dated 21 September, says the findings raise hopes that earlier testing and anti-inflammatory treatments could help prevent serious heart disease ^[10][14]. The steps O'Regan himself named were behavioural. "But while tackling health inequalities remains an issue, there are things that we can do about inflammation, including reducing risk factors like smoking and obesity," he said ^[13].