European guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice: executive summary

reposted from: http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/28/19/2375#top

In general, a middle aged person with a 10-year risk of CVD death of 5% or more is regarded as at high risk. Examination of the FINRISK MONICA data (which contribute substantially to the SCORE high risk population charts) suggests that the equivalent total (fatal + non-fatal) CVD risk is about 10%.

In my experience, some charts in the 2003 ESC study confused risk of CVD death with non fatal CVD risk. "The choice of CVD mortality rather than total (fatal + non-fatal) events was deliberate although not universally popular. Non-fatal event rates are critically dependent upon definitions and the methods used in their ascertainment. " (see section)

Calculating total event rates from FINRISK suggests that, at the level (5%) at which risk management advice is likely to be intensified, total event risk is about 10%.