[Assessment of Risk Factors for Atherosclerosis in Individuals of Different Categories of Cardiovascular Risk Using...

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Preventive Medicine
• Medical Informatics

Background:

• Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain a leading cause of mortality globally.
• Effective risk assessment tools are crucial for timely intervention and prevention strategies.
• The Aterostop calculator offers a novel approach to comprehensive CVD risk evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the initial outcomes of utilizing the Aterostop calculator for assessing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.
• To analyze major and additional risk factors in individuals with and without established atherosclerotic CVD.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involving 460 participants (healthy and with diagnosed atherosclerotic CVD).
• Utilized the Aterostop application, developed at the National Medical Research Center of Cardiology, Moscow.
• Assessed risk factors including age, smoking, arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus (DM), and lipid profiles.

Main Results:

• 45.4% of participants fell into very high and extreme CVD risk categories.
• Arterial hypertension and diabetes mellitus prevalence increased with higher risk categories, with DM showing exponential growth.
• While lipid-lowering medication use was associated with lower LDL-C, achieving target LDL-C levels was significantly poorer in high-risk individuals (3.7% in extreme risk vs. 75% in low risk).

Conclusions:

• The Aterostop calculator's findings align with existing data on the suboptimal effectiveness of primary and secondary prevention of atherosclerotic CVDs.
• There is a critical need for enhanced physician-patient collaboration to improve CVD prevention outcomes.
• The study highlights the importance of accurate risk stratification tools like Aterostop in clinical practice.