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Stuart J Pocock a Department of
Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, b Service de Pharmacologie Clinique, Faculté RTH Laennec, BP
8071-69376, Lyon Cedex 08, France, c Hypertension and Cardiovascular
Rehabilitation Unit, University of Leuven, UZ Gasthuisberg, B-3000
Leuven, Belgium
Correspondence to: S J Pocock stuart.pocock{at}lshtm.ac.uk
Objective:
To create a risk score for death from
cardiovascular disease that can be easily used.
What is already known on this topic
What this study adds
Design:
Data from eight randomised controlled trials of antihypertensive treatment.
Setting:
Europe and North America.
Participants:
47 088 men and women from trials that
had differing age ranges and differing eligibility criteria for blood pressure.
Main outcome measure:
1639 deaths from cardiovascular
causes during a mean 5.2 years of follow up.
Results:
Baseline factors were related to risk of
death from cardiovascular disease using a multivariate Cox model,
adjusting for trial and treatment group (active versus control). A risk score was developed from 11 factors: age, sex, systolic blood pressure,
serum total cholesterol concentration, height, serum creatinine
concentration, cigarette smoking, diabetes, left ventricular hypertrophy, history of stroke, and history of myocardial infarction. The risk score is an integer, with points added for each factor according to its association with risk. Smoking contributed more in
women and in younger age groups. In women total cholesterol concentration mattered less than in men, whereas diabetes had more of
an effect. Antihypertensive treatment reduced the score. The five year
risk of death from cardiovascular disease for scores of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 was 0.1%, 0.3%, 0.8%, 2.3%, 6.1%, and 15.6%,
respectively. Age and sex distributions of the score from the two UK
trials enabled individual risk assessment to be age and sex specific.
Risk prediction models are also presented for fatal coronary heart
disease, fatal stroke, and all cause mortality.
Conclusion:
The risk score is an objective aid to
assessing an individual's risk of cardiovascular disease, including
stroke and coronary heart disease. It is useful for physicians when
determining an individual's need for antihypertensive treatment and
other management strategies for cardiovascular risk.
Many other factors are known to affect the risk of cardiovascular
disease in patients with raised blood pressure
A new score uses 11 risk factors to quantify an adult's risk of death
from cardiovascular disease, including stroke and coronary heart
disease
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