A new, more accurate way to determine a woman’s risk for heart disease—the Reynolds Risk ScoreCoronary heart disease, or CHD, is currently the leading cause of death amongst women and men in the United States and Canada. Up until now, doctors have been using data from studies done almost half a century ago to gauge people’s risk for CHD.
The major risk factors for CHD that those studies helped identify include age, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol – also known as hyperlipidemia, and smoking. While these sound very sensible, up to 20% of all coronary events happen in women who do not have these risk factors—that is, women who do not smoke or have high cholesterol, for example. Interestingly, many women who do have these risk factors don’t experience a heart attack.
Now, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, have a new set of cardiovascular ‘risk algorithms’ developed specifically for women, using a modified set of risk factors. Researchers developed the Reynolds Risk Score using 10 years of data from 24,558 women who took part in the Women’s Health Study. Health data from 16,400 women were randomly selected to develop new algorithms, which were then tested using data from the remaining 8,158 women.
There is also a simplified version of the Reynolds Risk Score for non-diabetic women, because diabetes is considered a separate and serious risk factor for heart attack and stroke.
When researchers applied these risk factors and algorithms they found that between 40% and 50% of women previously considered to have an intermediate risk of experiencing a heart attack now showed either a higher or lower risk level. That is an important difference. The researchers who developed the Reynolds Risk Score believe that its use could have an immediate effect on treatment to prevent cardiovascular disease. In other words, if you are currently on preventative therapy for CHD, you may want to consider talking to your doctor about the Reynolds Risk criteria to see if they might affect your treatment.
If you would like to know more about your risk for CHD using The Reynolds Risk Score you can access the user-friendly calculator free of charge, at www.reynoldsriskscore.org
The study on the Reynolds Risk Score was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA, Feb 14, 2007).
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Reviewed: March 2007
Some definitions and video links
What are risk algorithms?
A set of factors used to define levels of risk and potentially, the appropriate course of treatment.
What is C-Reactive Protein?
A protein found in the blood that can be tested for with a high-sensitivity C-Reactive Protein blood test (hsCRP). Levels of CRP can indicate inflammation.
What is systolic blood pressure?
The top number of a blood pressure reading. It’s the highest blood pressure measured in the arteries during a contraction of the heart muscles.
What is HDL cholesterol?
Made up mostly of proteins, it’s also known as ‘good’ cholesterol.
What is total cholesterol?
The combination of HDL or ‘good’ cholesterol, LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol, and VLDL – or very low-density lipoprotein.
What is coronary heart disease?
When blood vessels and arteries leading to the heart become blocked by fatty deposits, or become thick and hard, it reduces blood flow to the heart causing damage to the heart muscles. Watch a video about coronary heart disease – also known as coronary artery disease.
What is myocardial infarction?
A type of heart attack caused by interruption of blood flow to the heart muscle. It damages the heart.