New Joint European Society's guidelines on CVD prevention

The new (Fourth) Joint European Society's Guidelines on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in clinical practice were launched at the European Society of Cardiology Congress, Vienna 2007.1

The guidelines have been revised in a number of sections, including information on the prediction of total as well as fatal events, cardiovascular events, and on the impact of diabetes, low HDL cholesterol and body mass index on risk.

The guidelines use the SCORE system to estimate cardiovascular risk. Recent research underlies the importance of low HDL cholesterol as an important contributor to cardiovascular risk prediction. Therefore HDL cholesterol has now been incorporated in the electronic interactive version of SCORE, HeartScore (available from escardio.org). While no specific treatment goals are defined for low HDL cholesterol, levels <1.0 mmol/L (40 mg/dL) in men and <1.2 mmol/L (45 mg/dL in women) are considered markers of increased cardiovascular risk, and should be targeted for intervention.

The full guidelines are available from the ESC website.

References

1. Graham I, Atar D, Borch-Johnsen K et al. European guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice: executive summary. Eur Heart J 2007. doi 10.1093/eurheartj/ehm316.