Protein may signal heart problems

A protein already linked to inflammation is also a strong predictor of heart problems, a new study suggests.

Researchers tracked the health of 27,939 outwardly healthy women over an average of 8 years. The 20 percent of women in the group with the highest concentrations of the protein, called C-reactive protein (CRP), were three times as likely to have a heart attack during the study as women with the lowest CRP were.