Estimating Cardiovascular Risk in Spain Using Different Algorithms

Introduction and objectives. Although its incidence is low, cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in Spain. A number of different algorithms can be used to calculate cardiovascular disease risk for primary prevention, but their ability to identify patients who will experience a cardiovascular event is not well understood. The objective of this study was to compare the results of using the original Framingham algorithm and two adaptations for low-risk countries: the REGICOR (Registre Gironi del COR) and SCORE (Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation) algorithms. Methods. All cardiovascular events during 5-year follow-up in a cohort of patients without coronary disease in nine autonomous Spanish regions were recorded. The levels of different cardiovascular risk factors were measured between 1995 and 1998. Participants were considered high-risk if their 10-year risk was ≥20% with the Framingham algorithm, ≥10%, ≥15% or ≥20% with REGICOR, and ≥5% with SCORE. Results. In total, 180 (3.1%) coronary events (112 in men and 68 in women) occurred among the 5732 (57.3% female) participants during follow-up. Of these, 43 died from