New research about inflammation’s role in heart disease underscores the need to consider a broader range of immune-system factors to find accurate biomarkers, especially in relation to age. A study published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology shows that systemic inflammation, the immune system’s defense against disease or injury that can contribute to cancer and diabetes, increases with age in people with heart-disease symptoms, but inflammation specific to vascular disease does not.
