Validation of the Framingham General Cardiovascular Risk Score and Pooled Cohort Equations in a Community-Based...

The 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk - as assessed using the Framingham general cardiovascular risk score (FRS-CVD) or pooled cohort equations (PCE) - is commonly used in Western cohorts for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the FRS-CVD and PCE have not been validated in Taiwanese cohorts.

We aimed to validate the FRS-CVD and PCE for assessing the 10-year ASCVD risk using a Taiwanese community-based population.

We extracted patient data from the Landseed Integrated Outreaching Neighborhood Screening registry, a community-based prospective cohort study established in 2006. Cardiovascular events from 2006 to 2017 were determined from electronic medical records. The discriminative power and calibration of the FRS-CVD and PCE were evaluated.

Overall, 5,139 subjects were analyzed; the 10-year follow-up rate was 99.6%. The mean age at baseline was 52.8 ± 13.1 years, and 44.6% of the subjects were male. In total, 430 of 4,631 (9.3%) and 227 of 4,022 (5.6%) of the FRS-CVD- and PCE-like cohorts, respectively, had ASCVD events. The calibration χ² of the FRS-CVD was 7.0267 (p = 0.6343) in males and 7.8845 (p = 0.5458) in females; the χ² of PCE was 13.007 (p = 0.1623) in males and 38.785 (p < 0.001) in females. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of the FRS-CVD was 0.76 (0.72-0.79) in males and 0.71 (0.67-0.74) in females; the AUROC of PCE was 0.68 (0.62-0.73) in males and 0.61 (0.56-0.67) in females.

Except for PCE in females, the FRS-CVD and PCE provided good calibration and modest discrimination in statin-naïve Taiwanese individuals without prior CVD.