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European Guidelines for Risk Assessment in the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease

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Part of the book series: Contemporary Cardiology ((CONCARD))

Abstract

In this chapter, we summarize current recommendations from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) for risk assessment in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). These risk assessment recommendations are drawn from the 2021 ESC guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention. One of the most notable updates found in the 2021 ESC guidelines is the introduction of a new 10-year risk estimator (called SCORE2), which provides prognostic information on fatal and nonfatal CVD. The previous ESC-SCORE calculator only estimated 10-year risk for fatal CVD. Additional new recommendations include: (1) a novel two-step approach to personalizing risk factor targets, (2) the endorsement of bespoke risk calculators for older persons (SCORE2-OP), diabetics, and secondary prevention adults; (3) the introduction of lifetime treatment benefit estimates to inform prevention treatment decisions in the young (<50 years) and old (>70 years); (4) earlier commencement of pharmacotherapy in hypertensive patients; (5) more intensive targets in the reduction of LDL-C among select individuals, and (6) the recognition of new randomized controlled trial data supporting the use of SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP1-receptor agonists in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

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Correspondence to John W. McEvoy .

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Cawley, C., McEvoy, J.W. (2022). European Guidelines for Risk Assessment in the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease. In: Shapiro, M.D. (eds) Cardiovascular Risk Assessment in Primary Prevention. Contemporary Cardiology. Humana, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98824-1_3

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