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  1. Rodney Jackson, professor of epidemiology (rt.jackson@auckland.ac.nz)
  1. Department of Community Health, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Editorial by Jackson

    The benefits of drug treatment for patients with raised blood pressure or blood cholesterol are directly related to their pretreatment risk of a cardiovascular disease event.1 2 This guide provides a simple quantitative method for assessing a person's risk of cardiovascular disease and the likely benefits of lowering blood pressure or blood cholesterol with drugs. These instructions and charts (figure) combine and update previous New Zealand cardiovascular disease risk assessment charts.3 4 This is not a guideline for managing cardiovascular disease risk.

    Assessing risk of a cardiovascular event over next five years

    A cardiovascular event is defined as a death related to coronary disease, non-fatal myocardial infarction, new angina, fatal or non-fatal stroke or transient ischaemic attack, or the development of congestive heart failure or peripheral vascular disease.

    Estimating risk of cardiovascular disease

    In …

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