Eric Topol has written on why two large cardiovascular outcome trials came up empty this year — ZEUS, testing the interleukin-6 antibody ziltivekimab, and Lp(a)HORIZON, testing pelacarsen. Both selected and followed patients using circulating markers. Neither established that the coronary arteries themselves were inflamed. Topol’s argument is that the trials were aimed at a surrogate rather than at the target.
Inflammation in the coronary wall can be measured directly. The fat attenuation index (FAI) reads the perivascular fat on a standard CT coronary angiogram, and identifies patients whose arteries are inflamed when the blood markers do not.
Central Sydney Cardiology was Australia’s first CaRi-Heart® Centre and offers Caristo’s FAI analysis on routine cardiac CT.
Read Eric Topol’s article
CaRi-Heart at Central Sydney Cardiology