Can cardiovascular disease guidelines that advise treatment decisions based on absolute risk be improved?

Abstract

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) will remain the predominant cause of death and a major cause of morbidity for the foreseeable future. Consequently, CVD prevention offers the greatest potential for the prevention of premature mortality and the compression of morbidity. Discussion: The 2013 guidelines of the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association expand the eligibility for CVD preventive treatment based on the calculated 10-year CVD risk derived from the pooled cohort equation to all persons who have a 10-year risk of CVD of ≥7.5% as estimated by the pooled cohort equation. Previous analyses show that the use of a uniform 10-year risk threshold of 7.5% for a..