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Hans K Meier-Ewert, Paul M Ridker, Nader Rifai, Nick Price, David F Dinges, Janet M Mullington, Absence of Diurnal Variation of C-Reactive Protein Concentrations in Healthy Human Subjects, Clinical Chemistry, Volume 47, Issue 3, 1 March 2001, Pages 426–430, https://doi.org/10.1093/clinchem/47.3.426
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Abstract
Background: The concentration of C-reactive protein (CRP) in otherwise healthy subjects has been shown to predict future risk of myocardial infarction and stroke. CRP is synthesized by the liver in response to interleukin-6, the serum concentration of which is subject to diurnal variation.
Methods: To examine the existence of a time-of-day effect for baseline CRP values, we determined CRP concentrations in hourly blood samples drawn from healthy subjects (10 males, 3 females; age range, 21–35 years) during a baseline day in a controlled environment (8 h of nighttime sleep).
Results: Overall CRP concentrations were low, with only three subjects having CRP concentrations >2 mg/L. Comparison of raw data showed stability of CRP concentrations throughout the 24 h studied. When compared with cutoff values of CRP quintile derived from population-based studies, misclassification of greater than one quintile did not occur as a result of diurnal variation in any of the subjects studied. Nonparametric ANOVA comparing different time points showed no significant differences for both raw and z-transformed data. Analysis for rhythmic diurnal variation using a method fitting a cosine curve to the group data was negative.
Conclusions: Our data show that baseline CRP concentrations are not subject to time-of-day variation and thus help to explain why CRP concentrations are a better predictor of vascular risk than interleukin-6. Determination of CRP for cardiovascular risk prediction may be performed without concern for diurnal variation.
