How to calculate vascular age with the SCORE project scales: a new method of cardiovascular risk evaluation

In 2008, a new cardiovascular risk table from the Framingham Heart Study was published, which incorporated the new concept 'vascular age'. The aim of the present study was to determine the vascular age calculated from the two SCORE project scales and to determine the degree of agreement in vascular age between the two scales.

Vascular age was calculated according to its definition, but using the SCORE scale equations (for low- and high-risk countries) instead of the Framingham equations. Vascular age calculations were obtained covering all the absolute risk values in the SCORE charts, obtaining results of vascular age beyond 65 years of age. To determine the degree of agreement between vascular age calculated with the two SCORE scales (for high- and low-risk countries), the intraclass correlation coefficient was calculated. Of the 400 boxes in the SCORE charts, the vascular age differed between high- and low-risk countries by 1 year or less in 347 boxes (86.75%). In just six boxes (1.5%), the difference was 3 years. Agreement between the scales was very high, as demonstrated by their intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.997.

Vascular age is a new concept derived from Framingham risk tables that can be calculated with other risk scales, like SCORE. Agreement of vascular age calculated from the SCORE equations for high- and low-risk countries was extremely high, in contrast to the poor agreement in absolute risk.