Global Cardiovascular Risk

Cardiovascular risk is determined by many factors including genetics predisposition, environmental factors, and lifestyle. These need to be considered when evaluating risk of future cardiovascular events in an individual patient. The important modifiable risk factors are diabetes, cholesterol, smoking and blood pressure which together with family history and lifestyle influences (stress, obesity, alcohol, physical activity) account for more than 90% of heart attacks and strokes. The ScoreCard of the European Society of Cardiology can be used now to determine the 10-year risk of a major cardiovascular event, such as myocardial infarction, stroke, and cardiovascular death and this can be used as a guide to choice of treatment. Other important factors, such as noise, pollution, socio-economic status will influence cardiovascular risk, but are difficult to incorporate when managing an individual patient.