New guidelines issued this week by the American Heart Association on the prevention of cardiovascular disease in women propose replacing the Framingham risk assessment method and adopting more aggressive preventive treatment of women who are currently considered at low risk.

The guidelines, which were published online on 19 February in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation (http://circ.ahajournals.org, doi: 10.1161/circulationaha.107.181546), could lead to millions of women taking up low dose aspirin treatment. For the first time, the American Heart Association recommends considering low dose aspirin treatment in all women aged over 65 years, even those not classified as being at high risk.

The Framingham risk function, derived from data gathered over two generations in the Massachusetts town of that name, has …