CRP and atherosclerosis: Two small studies of patients mostly with established atherosclerosis found significant reductions in CRP and cytokines with 4 weeks of fenofibrate treatment, but these studies lacked a placebo control.8,10 A larger 3-month trial in subjects with mixed hyperlipidemia did report significant reductions in CRP with fenofibrate compared to placebo.11 In men with abdominal adiposity and the metabolic syndrome, 6 months of gemfibrozil treatment also decreased CRP but failed to reduce plasma IL-6 or TNF-α levels.12 Most trials of fibrates, however, did not address their antiinflammatory effects.