Assessment of high cardiovascular risk profiles for the clinician

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major cardiovascular (CV) risk factor. General Framingham Risk Profile (GFRP) and World Health Organization/International Society of Hypertension (WHO/ISH) charts were used to assess CV risk in DM in Oman. The GFRP identified more patients with medium-risk DM; GFRP and WHO/ISH identified essentially equal numbers at very high risk. These were then used to evaluate statin usage in Oman, including economics. Google lists innumerable tools from organizations, hospitals, practitioners, magazines, societies, clinics, and medical associations. The GFRP and WHO/ISH calculations provided useful DM assessment of populations in Oman. Other major risk models are Adult Treatment Panel III, based on Framingham, and Reynolds Risk Score; the latter incorporates other factors such as family history, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and hemoglobin A(1c) (in DM). These models are useful in assessing specific populations. Individual practitioners with limited time may just evaluate patients as low, medium, and high CV risk based on general knowledge and then treat.