Cardiovascular diseases, how to discover and control risk factors: the tests available – breaking latest news

When cardiovascular diseases give symptoms, it’s already late. We should focus on prevention. Word of Furio Colivicchi, president of Anmco: the real goal should be to recognize problems when they haven’t yet given a sign of yes. The first step establish your own level of cardiovascular risk: the time for an evaluation comes around the age of forty for men and around fifty or at least at the time of menopause in the case of women, says Colivicchi. For example, it is important to consider the family history because some elements of risk present in the parents, such as there‘hypertension, almost certainly sooner or later they will also affect the children; equally useful to take advantage of opportunities such as the medical certificate to be presented at the gym to undergo some tests, such as the electrocardiogram. Alone is not enough, once a year it would be advisable to check parameters related to cardiovascular risk come blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, kidney function.

An easy way to assess the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke over the next 10 years is to use the cardiovascular risk chart of the Heart Project of the Istituto Superiore di Sanit and, as Pasquale Perrone Filardi, president of Sic explains, Knowing what level of danger we start from is essential, also for this reason the Society of Cardiology will launch an awareness campaign on the subject in the coming months: whoever high or very high risk needs to be followed carefully, even in the absence of symptoms. Furthermore, to better evaluate one’s conditions, other more refined diagnostic possibilities are appearing such as the evaluation of ApoA, a lipoprotein that indicates a higher and more abundant risk profile in about 20 percent of adults. Even the Poligenic Risk Scoreor theanalysis of genetic factors that we know to be related to cardiovascular risk factors, not yet in the guidelines but in the near future could integrate and refine the standard assessment: genome tests are increasingly cheaper and knowledge about the role of genes is increasing.

This was also discussed at the last conference of the Heart Attack Center Foundation, underlining that genetic information has the potential to be an early predictor of risk because it is independent of age, too often considered a variable with excessive weight in classic models, explains Francesco Prati, president of the Foundation. Until the 27 percent of heart attack cases defy traditional estimates because it does not present the classic risk factors, the genetic heritage instead determines a basic risk on which external influences act. For most of us, hereditary risk depends on the cumulative impact of many common genetic variants: each has a modest effect, but when these variants add up, the genetic risk goes up. The Polygenic Risk Score is a polygenic risk score that can estimate the aggregate impact of these multiple variants and may therefore be helpful.