Coronary disease risk assessment in men: Comparison between ASCVD Risk versus Framingham

This study evaluated the risk of men developing coronary heart disease and its determinant variables, comparing these results through two validated coronary risk scales.

A cross sectional epidemiological analytical study in which data were collected by spontaneous demand, through a semi-structured questionnaire, clinical examination, and blood collection. The Chi-square test, logistic regression and Kappa for statistical analysis were performed.

The study included 637 men. Age was a determining factor (p<0.05) in blood pressure (BP) changes, central obesity, BMI, glycemia, total cholesterol, LDL and triglycerides. From this group of 637, 252 presented BP above the recommended values. It was found that 34.54% of men had high total cholesterol, 19.94% had high LDL, 46.78% presented HDL below normal values and 36.42% had elevated triglycerides. Metabolic syndrome was found in 24.96% of the men. With the Framingham scale, 637 men were evaluated, 12.56% were at intermediate-risk and 5.49% elevated risk, while on the ASCVD Risk scale 553 men were evaluated, and 7.05% had moderate risk and none had high coronary risk. In this study, 50.43% of men still had no previous diagnosis for any disease that increases the risk factors.

The determinant clinical variables were age, blood pressure, smoking, central obesity, race and education. The Framingham scale allowed the assessment of cardiac risk of all men in the study, with no age restriction or cholesterol value, so in population studies it shows advantages over the ASCVD Risk due to its comprehensive feature of including all individuals.