Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease (CAD) remains the number 1 cause of death and disability in all developed countries for both men and women. Preventing CAD remains the leading challenge to biomedical researchers and public health workers today. Several epidemiological studies have proved that life style change can reduce the risks for CAD 

Cardiovascular risk factors

We mean as risk factor an attribute (such as an habit) or exposure to some environmental hazard that leads the subject concerned to have a greater likelihood of developing an illness. 

Cardiovascular disease is multifactorial in nature. Furthermore, it has become increasingly clear that risk factors for cardiovascular disease tend to cluster in individuals, and that multiple risk factors have a multiplicative effect on coronary risk. Since the first result of the Framinghan study in the 1960s, risk factors assessment has been increasingly recognized as the most effective means of managing cardiovascular disease. But the emerging concept of the new millennium is that we have to look at the “total risk” rather than looking at primary and secondary prevention as discrete entities.  The most common cardiovascular risk factors are:

q        Age (men ³ 45 y, women ³ 55 y or postmenopausal)

q       hypertension

q       diabetes

q       smoking

q       HDL < 35 mg/dL

q       Family history of coronary artery disease in first-degree relatives (in male relatives < 55y, female relatives < 65y)

Subtract 1 risk factor from the number of positive risk factors

Lifestyle targets for all patients

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