According to data published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, high blood levels of myeloperoxidase were associated the early development of heart disease and blood vessel damage. Surprisingly, this association seems to persist even when other risk factors are eliminated. In other words, researchers were able to see a link between myeloperoxidase and cardiovascular disease that does not depend on other risk factors like smoking, high cholesterol, or diabetes, which means that even "healthy" people may be at risk.

While it has been known since at least 2003 that myeloperoxidase might be useful as a chemical indicator that a heart attack had occurred, this is the first time that it has been examined for its predictive ability.

Overall, the risk of cardiovascular disease was shown to be 36 percent higher in people with elevated levels of myeloperoxidase when traditional risk factors were taken into account.