“Cardiovascular Disease and Laboratory Medicine”

The opening chapter rightly starts with a discussion of the risk factors of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and their relative importance. There is a list of the emerging cardiovascular risk factor markers that are associated with inflammation, but most of these are not yet in clinical application. The authors do not make a recommendation of the most useful routine tests to assess the risk for CVD. It would have been helpful if C-reactive protein, a key risk factor, was discussed in a separate sub-section. The chapter also includes mention of non-laboratory techniques for assessing cardiovascular risk such as the ankle-brachia pulse index, B mode ultrasound, coronary artery calcification and magnetic resonance imaging.