The wonderful thing about that big library in cyberspace, which is the internet, is the occasional pot of gold which turns up out of the blue. The pot of gold might be a public domain postdoctoral thesis on mediaeval history stored away in some obscure university e-archives, or it might be a curiously unique website devoted to the role of C-reactive protein and inflammation in cardiovascular disease.

For those seemingly eccentric clinicians with a decade or more of fascination with the role of infection, inflammatory diseases, inflammatory triggers and inflammatory markers and the association of small and large vessel arterial disease fluctuations, CRPhealth will provide a bucket-load of information, abstracts, publications and other resources to firmly remind us of just how much we still do not fully understand in the otherwise over-published and increasingly globalised world that is modern medicine. (One could say the evidence based medicine-obsessed modern world of medicine but it is appropriately and gratifyingly noted BPAC really likes CRPs and doesn't like ESRs.)

While the role of CRPhealth in arterial diseases has not yet substantially embedded itself into so-and-so's "evidence that matters" or the "Middle Earth Guidelines Group cardiovascular guide for optimal primary heart care", there is an increasing, albeit somewhat ambulatory acceptance within the cardiology community that inflammation, endothelial and intimal dysfunction might (just conceivably) go hand in hand.

CRPhealth is a sponsored site thanks to Novartis, Sandoz and a technology company called Behring (which of course just happens to make machines that measure CRP).

But the editorial board of six includes reputable cardiovascular professors and lipidologists from Harvard, Germany and Texas. Despite the sponsorship, it is, however, disappointing the site does not appear to provide any full text article references and most references and links at this time are to abstracts only. It is hoped sponsorships in future will allow suitable access to full text articles.

Indeed, comprehensive and authoritative review articles such as: "The metabolic syndrome: inflammation, diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease," from a referenced January 2006 American Journal of Cardiology issue, only offers the full article through the e-publishing affiliate Science Direct for the completely absurd and unattractive price of US$30.

So, while thumbnail abstracts for certain references may be useful for succinct niche research publications, abstracts of review articles tend to be close to useless.

CRPhealth is not an elaborate or complicated website. It has two main components - a professional section and a consumer section. Both sections give a brief background about the significance of CRP and inflammation in cardiovascular disease under headings, what is CRP, guidelines, clinical trial summaries and a discussion forum.

There are also online audio presentations, powerpoint presentations, a video and slide library and other resources available. CRPhealth is well worth a visit and if the site remains well maintained may serve as a useful trigger for important new publications dealing with the future role of inflammation in cardiovascular disease.
We can but hope their generous sponsorship will eventually extend to full text articles.