Prediction of cardiovascular disease worldwide

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide.1 Many national and international guidelines endorse the use of risk prediction models to guide individualised decision-making for lifestyle recommendations and medical treatments as part of primary and even secondary prevention. Well known examples are the Pooled Cohort Equations (PCE) of the American Heart Association, the SCORE model in various European countries, and QRisk in the UK. Risk scores to predict cardiovascular disease risk are abundant, as shown by a comprehensive review of the literature done in 2009, which identified more than 100 cardiovascular disease risk models.