• Assessing an individual’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease is essential for prevention.
• Traditional risk markers, such as blood pressure and cholesterol, are not always accurate measures for predicting heart disease at the individual level.
• Researchers are exploring new risk markers such as the coronary artery calcium score and the polygenic risk score.
• A new study suggests that adding the coronary artery calcium score, as opposed to the polygenic risk score, to traditional risk markers can help doctors assess individual coronary heart disease risk more accurately in middle-aged and older adults.

By Clarissa Brincat on May 24, 2023 — Fact checked by Jennifer Chesak

read full article