Identification of Patients at High Cardiovascular Risk: Problems and Possible Solutions. (Part I)

Abstract

In the article the problems of identification of high risk patients are discussed. It is shown that the existing scales of cardiovascular risk assessment turn to have some drawbacks. This is mainly due to the fact that people at low and intermediate risk of coronary heart disease are much more than people at high risk in the global population. In addition, risk assessment tools for estimating risk of developing cardiovascular disease still do not provide optimal scenarios for treatment strategies. The current number of risk stratification scales is secondary in relation to Framingham risk score, which is using a system that includes smoking, sex, age, systolic blood pressure, total and high density cholesterol. In this paper authors are considering possible ways of overcoming the limitations of methods for determining the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.