Although it is generally accepted that cardiac ischemic events develop when coronary atherosclerosis (coronary artery disease [CAD]) has reached a critical threshold, this is true only to a first approximation.

Indeed, there are patients with severe CAD who do not develop ischemic events; conversely, at the other extreme, individuals with minimal CAD may do. Similar exceptions to this paradigm include patients with diffuse CAD with a low risk factor (RF) profile and others with multiple RFs who develop only mild or no CAD.

Therefore, the CAPIRE project was designed to investigate whether the specific study of these extreme outlier populations could provide clues for identification of yet unknown risk or protective factors for CAD and ischemic events.

Reference

Magnoni M, Andreini D, Gorini M, Moccetti T, Modena MG, Canestrari M, Berti S, Casolo G, Gabrielli D, Marraccini P, Pontone G, Masson S, Latini R, Maggioni AP, Maseri A; CAPIRE Study Group. Coronary atherosclerosis in outlier subjects at the opposite extremes of traditional risk factors: Rationale and preliminary results of the Coronary Atherosclerosis in outlier subjects:Protective and novel Individual Risk factors Evaluation (CAPIRE) study. Am Heart J. 2016 Mar;173:18-26. doi: 10.1016/j.ahj.2015.11.017. Epub 2015 Dec 17. Go to PubMed abstract