The cardiovascular risk chart is a simple and objective way of assessing the likelihood of experiencing a first major cardiovascular event (myocardial infarction or stroke) over the following ten years, when the values of six risk factors - gender, history of diabetes, smoking, age, systolic blood pressure and total serum cholesterol – are known.

The risk chart:

• is not a ‘do-it-yourself’ tool
• is valid if the risk factors are measured using standardized methods
• can be applied to men and women ages 40-69 free from previous coronary or cerebrovascular event
• cannot be applied to pregnant women
• is not applicable in the case of extreme values of risk factors: systolic arterial pressure greater than 200 mmHg or lower than 90 mmHg and total serum cholesterol value greater than 320 mg/dl or lower than 130 mg/dl.

In order to assess cardiovascular risk, glycemia and cholesterol values deriving from clinical tests are reliable only if no more than three months have passed since last measurements.

The use of risk charts to assess cardiovascular risk is highly recommended at least:

• every six months in people at high cardiovascular risk (equal to or greater than 20%)
• every year in people at cardiovascular risk to be kept under control through an healthy lifestyle (equal to or greater than 5% and lower than 20%)
• every five years in people at low cardiovascular risk (lower than 5%).

How to use the chart

 

Risk charts to assess the cardiovascular risk are available for:  diabetic man, non diabetic man, diabetic woman, non diabetic woman. For each of these four categories the charts are further subdivided into smokers and non smokers.

Identify your age decade and your serum cholesterol and arterial pressure values.

Six cardiovascular risk categories were constructed, called MCV (from I to VI): the CVD risk category indicates how many persons out of 100 with the same characteristics will fall ill over next 10 years.

 

The risk categories are expressed as:

 

  

 

The  risk factors considered are:

1. gender, expressed as two categories, men and women

 

2. diabetic status, expressed as two categories, diabetic and non diabetic; a person is defined diabetic if, after at least two consecutive measurements in one week, has fasting blood glucose equal to or lower than 126 mg/dl or is undergoing insuline or oral hypoglycemic agents treatement or has a family history of diabetes.

 

3. age, expressed in years and grouped into decades, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69

 

4. cigarette smoking status,  expressed as two categories - smokers and non smokers. A person who smokes every day (even if only one cigarette) or has given up from less than 12 months is defined smoker. A person who has never smoked or has given up from 12 months is defined non-smoker

 

5. systolic arterial pressure, expressed in mmHg; it consists of the mean of two consecutive systolic blood pressure measurements performed according to the prescribed method. It is subdivided into four categories:

• equal to or greater than 90 mmHg and lower than 130 mmHg
• equal to or greater than 130 mmHg and lower than 150 mmHg
• equal to or greater than 150 mmHg and inferiore a 170 mmHg
• equal to or greater than 170 mmHg and equal to or lower than 200 mmHg.

If a person has systolic arterial pressure higher than 200mmHg or lower than 90 mmHg the risk    assessment chart cannot be used.

 

6. serum cholesterol,  expressed in mmol/l; it is subdivided into five categories:

• equal to or greater than 130 mg/dl and lower than 174 mg/dl
• equal to or greater than 174 mg/dl and lower than 213 mg/dl
• equal to or greater than 213 mg/dl and lower than 252 mg/dl
• equal to or greater than 252 mg/dl and lower than 291 mg/dl
• equal to or greater than 291 mg/dl and equal to or lower than a 320 mg/dl.

 

If a person has total serum cholesterol level greater than 320 mg/dl or lower than 130 mg/dl the risk assessment chart cannot be used.

 

Women diabetic non-diabetic

Men diabetic non-diabetic