There have been dozens of clinical studies demonstrating LpPLA2's ability to predict cardiovascular risk. A 2008 study showed that people whose LpPLA2 concentrations were in the upper quartile were 1.64 times more likely to have a cardiac event than those in the lowest quartile. A meta-analysis (a study that sums the results of several other studies) performed by researchers at the Mayo Clinic showed that the unadjusted odds ratio for the association between elevated Lp-PLA2 levels and cardiovascular disease risk was 1.51, indicating that patients with elevated LpPLA2 patients had 1.51 times the risk of cardiovascular disease or events.
