A new international study shows that cardiovascular inflammation remains highly prevalent among people with cardiovascular diseases and can have serious health implications, despite the current standard of care treatment.
The study found that two in five people with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease have cardiovascular inflammation, causing an increased risk of major cardiovascular issues.
This is an important concern because cardiovascular inflammation is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular issues such as heart attack and stroke in people living with cardiovascular diseases.
A Poseidon analysis by Novo Nordisk was recently published in the *European Journal of Heart Failure and showed that two in five people with heart failure also have cardiovascular inflammation.
Poseidon was a large, multinational, cross-sectional observational real-world evidence study designed to evaluate the prevalence and characteristics of high inflammatory risk in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease with and without chronic kidney disease and/or heart failure.
The Poseidon included 18,904 patients across 18 countries and showed that cardiovascular inflammation remains highly prevalent among people with cardiovascular disease despite the current standard of care treatment.
These findings underscore a significant gap in current cardiovascular care.
Even when people receive guideline-recommended treatments to control cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar, inflammation-driven cardiovascular risk persists.
The study represents one of the largest contemporary global assessments of the prevalence of cardiovascular inflammation in this high-risk population.
"Poseidon makes clear that inflammation is not a peripheral concern. It is a shared driver of risk affecting millions of patients worldwide with cardiovascular disease who remain vulnerable despite our best current therapies," said Prof Carolyn SP Lam, senior consultant at Singapore National Heart Centre’s Department of Cardiology and professor at the Duke-NUS Medical School’s Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders Signature Research Programme.
"What is striking is the consistency of inflammatory signals across such diverse patient populations,” she said. “That consistency points to a practical way forward – identifying patients most likely to benefit from therapies that directly target inflammation."
Poseidon enrolled 18,904 patients across 18 countries spanning Europe, North America, South America and Asia-Pacific between 2023 and 2025.
Within the study, 13,475 patients had atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, of whom 5,757 (42.7%) had chronic kidney disease, while 11,809 patients had heart failure spanning all types of heart failure.
Cardiovascular inflammation plays a central role in the development and progression of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
Multiple studies have shown that people with cardiovascular inflammation face an increased risk of major adverse cardiovascular events, including heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular death.
Inflammation also contributes to chronic kidney disease progression, and chronic kidney disease itself may promote inflammation, creating a cycle that amplifies cardiovascular risk.
It plays a key role in heart failure, and it is common across all types of heart failure, particularly in people with obesity, kidney disease and other metabolic conditions.
The growing recognition of the role of inflammation in cardiovascular disease is reflected in recent guidelines from the European Society of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the American College of Cardiology.
Cardiovascular inflammation is increasingly recognised as a key driver of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and a major contributor to persistent cardiovascular risk in people receiving standard preventative therapies.
It also plays a key role in heart failure, and it is common across all types of heart failure, particularly in people with obesity, kidney disease and other metabolic conditions.
