New Way to Predict Women's Heart Risk

A new set of guidelines to help predict a woman’s risk for heart disease has been published by the AHA. The study was conducted by Judith Hsia MD at the George Washington University Medical School. This new approach is used to simplify the classification for both the doctor and the patient. A patient can be placed in one of three categories; high risk, at-risk, or optimal risk. High risk means that a woman has cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease. At-risk women have more than one sign leading to heart disease. Some of these examples are: cigarette smoking, obesity, family history, high blood pressure, poor diet, or high cholesterol levels. Optimal risk women live a healthy lifestyle and exhibit no risk factors.

This Framingham Heart Study has been going on since 1948. The seven characteristics that are used to determine heart problems over the next 10 years are: age, gender, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, Systolic blood pressure, need for blood pressure medication, and cigarette smoking. This method was compared to the more complex AHA guidelines and provided very similar results. While both methods can still be used, the simpler one should become more popular.

http://women.webmd.com/news/20100216/new-way-to-predict-womens-heart-risk
-Kelli Martinez
VTPP 435