Cardiovascular Disease Calculator 10 Year Risk

  “Don't worry about  your risk of getting heart disease - use our CVD risk calculator to calculate your risk - It may be the motivation you need to change your daily habits!”

CVD Risk Calculator is a tool which enables you to calculate your risk for developing severe cardiovascular complications within the following ten years. Our cardiovascular risk calculator is based on the results of the Framingham Study and requires only a basic medical history to calculate YOUR risk. 

Have you ever wondered why people have heart disease?

The term cardiovascular disease can refer to different heart or blood vessel problems. The most critical risk factor for developing a cardiovascular disease is damaging the heart or blood vessels by atherosclerosis and hyper-cholesterolemia. Too much stress in your life, is the primary reason why atherosclerosis develops. Atherosclerosis is when fatty plaque begins to buildup in your arteries, which thickens and stiffens the artery walls, and plugs the lumen of the artery, which can inhibit blood flow through your arteries to your organs and tissues, including the muscles of your heart.

At first patients usually don't have any symptoms, but eventually, it causes:

• Coronary artery disease (including heart attack)
• Stroke
• Peripheral arteries disease
• Chronic kidney failure

This is why it is so important to regulate your lifestyle, by controlling your diet to keep to your ideal weight, exercise regularly, strategies to deal with stress, get enough quality sleep and many other factors to minimise the risk of CVD, and its consequences!

The Framingham Heart Study

The Framingham Heart Study is a long-term cohort study under the direction of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), formerly known as the National Heart Institute, in collaboration with Boston University. The study began in 1948 with 5209 adults from Framingham, Massachusetts and now it is on its third generation of participants. Before this study, there was no data on the epidemiology ( study and analysis)  of hypertension or atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease(blocked arteries). In the scientific world, it is considered an outstanding source of evidence because of its complexity and duration.

More than 1000 original medical papers have been published based on the Framingham Heart Study. The major findings from that study are as follows:

• Smoking cigarettes, being obese, having a high cholesterol level and elevated blood pressure increase the risk of heart disease
• Exercise and high levels of HDL cholesterol reduce risk of heart disease
• Elevated blood pressure increases the risk of a stroke
• Filtered cigarettes do not lower the risk of heart disease, as opposed to smoking without a filter

About CardioVascular Risk Calculator

Our CVD risk calculator is based on the article General Cardiovascular Risk Profile for Use in Primary Care, published in 2008 in the medical journal Circulation by a group of scientists conducted by Dr. D'Agostino. In their study, authors describe a statistical model that assesses the 10-year risk of developing cardiovascular disease among primarily healthy persons. Thanks to this work, you can use our heart disease risk calculator and check your risk for developing:

• Coronary heart disease (including heart attack)
• Cerebrovascular disease (including stroke)
• Peripheral vascular disease
• Heart failure

This CV risk calculator was prepared based on the medical history of 8491 Framingham study participants. Analysis of the statistics revealed that a patients risk of developing heart disease depends on their:

• Sex
• Age
• Total cholesterol
• High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol
• Systolic blood pressure
• Treatment for hypertension
• Smoking
• Diabetes

For each of these features you may receive anywhere from -3 to +15 points (depending on your sex) - these are the so-called CVD points. The more points you get, the bigger your risk of cardiovascular disease is. Then, these points are converted into percents - they reflect the risk of developing at least one cardiovascular disease in the next ten years. If you are interested in the details on how the CVD risk calculator works, take a look at the tables presented in the original article.

How to calculate your CVD Risk?

If you want to know what your risk of developing a cardiovascular disease is, follow these steps using our cardiac risk calculator!

1. Choose your sex.
2. Fill in your age (note that this calculator has been validated for only people older than 30 years).
3. Fill in your basic laboratory data - HDL cholesterol and total cholesterol.
4. Write down your average systolic blood pressure and choose if you are treated for hypertension.
5. Choose whether you are a smoker and/or a diabetic.
6. And that's it! You've got your result!

Now, let's take some examples.

A 61-year-old woman, not treated for high blood pressure, who has a total cholesterol of 180 mg/dL, HDL of 47 mg/dL, and systolic blood pressure of 124 mm Hg, and is a current smoker but is not diabetic.

She has an estimated 10-year cardiovascular risk of 10%.

A 53-year-old man on treatment for systolic blood pressure, who has a total cholesterol of 161 mg/dL, HDL of 55 mg/dL, and systolic blood pressure of 125 mm Hg, and is diabetic but is not a current smoker.

He has an estimated 10-year cardiovascular risk of 15.6%.

CVD Calculator

 

Summary:

So if you have completed the calculator and received your result - if its a low risk score well done to you ! however if its a higher risk score and you are concerned about your future health and wellbeing - maybe its time to do something about it ? one thing you can do right now is to subscribe to this channel and get regular heart health updates and learn the essentials of how to keep your heart healthy !