Peer Reviewed
Feature Article Cardiovascular medicine

The why, who and how of CHD prevention

Mark R Nelson, Andrew Tonkin
Abstract
Absolute risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) is determined using all the major CHD risk factors, including age and gender, and is a better indicator than relative risk of those patients in whom intervention is appropriate. Various risk calculation tools exist to aid the accurate assessment of absolute risk.
Key Points
  • Identify all patients who have established vascular disease.
  • Use a tool to calculate the absolute risk of CHD in patients without established vascular disease, i.e. the risk of a patient having a vascular event over the ensuing five years.
  • Intervene with lifestyle advice based on smoking, nutrition, alcohol and physical activity (SNAP) in all patients, when appropriate.
  • Intervene with drugs and other therapies in addition to lifestyle advice for patients at high absolute risk, including those with established vascular disease.
Get full access
Subscribe for full access to all articles
Buy this article

Single article purchases are temporarily unavailable due to site maintenance.

If you would like to purchase an article during this time, please email us at [email protected] with the article details and we'll assist you directly. We'll also let you know when online purchasing is available again.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Already a subscriber?