Assessment
How to assess a patient's cardiovascular risk
This is normally done using a risk scoring system (see here), such as QRISK3 or ASSIGN. These incorporate a person’s blood pressure, lipid profile and smoking status as well as age, sex, and other risk factors for developing cardiovascular disease to predict their risk of suffering from a myocardial infarction or stroke in the next 10 years.
Suggested interpretation:
|
10-year cardiovascular risk |
Recommended action |
|
<10% |
Lifestyle modification (if appropriate) Drug therapy usually not recommended |
|
10-20% |
Lifestyle modification Consider/discuss drug therapy |
|
>20% |
Lifestyle modification Offer drug therapy (if appropriate) |
Do not use these risk calculators in people with:
- Familial hypercholesterolaemia or other inherited dyslipidaemia
- Patients with established cardiovascular disease
All these groups should be on lipid-lowering therapy +/- antihypertensive therapy as appropriate.