Office-based global cardiometabolic risk assessment: a simple tool incorporating nontraditional markers

To facilitate comprehensive cardiometabolic risk assessment, we developed a simple 12-point checklist of traditional and emerging risk factors. We recently analyzed data from the Pravastatin or Atorvastatin Evaluation and Infection Therapy-Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction 22 (PROVE IT-TIMI 22) trial of 4162 high-risk patients hospitalized with recent acute coronary syndrome, and found that an increasing cardiometabolic risk factor count was associated with increasing risk of cardiovascular events over the next 2 years. In addition, we observed that the average number of risk factors a given patient had was 5, with some risk factors like obesity having clustering of additional risk factors, suggesting the need to assess the full list of risk factors to be able to provide comprehensive risk factor assessment and modification. We now have developed a 1-page patient encounter sheet to facilitate rapid assessment of these 12 cardiometabolic risk factors in a busy clinical office setting. It is hoped that with the simple risk assessment tool provided, clinicians would be able to comprehensively screen for and treat these traditional and nontraditional risk markers. As such, this could motivate both patients and physicians to work jointly toward reducing global cardiometabolic risk.