Researchers at the Johns Hopkins have made a big breakthrough in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment by developing a universal prediction model.
This innovative model, detailed in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, has the potential to transform how doctors assess the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and other major cardiovascular events in patients.
Traditionally, clinicians have relied on two separate risk models for evaluating patients’ cardiovascular health: one for primary prevention (preventing an initial cardiovascular event) and another for secondary prevention (preventing a new event after one has already occurred).
The new model developed by the Johns Hopkins team consolidates these two approaches into one, using a set of 10 factors, including age, cigarette smoking status, diabetes status, and blood levels of several cardiac biomarkers.
Led by senior author Kunihiro Matsushita, MD, Ph.D., the team developed and validated this model using a dataset from nearly 10,000 participants tracked over two decades.
This dataset was part of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study (ARIC), which included individuals with and without established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
This unified model is poised to simplify the risk-assessment process and enhance doctor-patient discussions.
It can find people who do not have cardiovascular disease but are at ‘cardiovascular disease equivalent’ risk, offering a more quantitative prediction compared to some existing tools.
Cardiovascular disease, a leading cause of death and disability globally, often involves atherosclerotic arteries, which can cause heart attacks and strokes.
Accurate risk prediction is crucial for implementing interventions like cholesterol-lowering drugs, one of the most prescribed pharmaceutical categories.
The distinction between primary and secondary prevention models has been a cornerstone of CVD risk assessment for years.
Secondary prevention models have traditionally focused on short-term risks following an initial event and categorized patients broadly (e.g., “high risk”).
However, with the improvement in treatments and a shift towards longer-term risk prediction, factors like diabetes and smoking status have become relevant in both primary and secondary prevention assessments.
If you care about heart health, please read studies that vitamin K helps cut heart disease risk by a third, and a year of exercise reversed worrisome heart failure.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about supplements that could help prevent heart disease, stroke, and results showing this food ingredient may strongly increase heart disease death risk.
The research findings can be found in Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Copyright © 2024 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
