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The default way to characterize heart-disease risk is as a 10-year estimate. Lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been proposed as a more meaningful way to communicate about risk with patients and providers. Now, investigators have estimated lifetime risk for total CVD according to index patient age and risk-factor strata.
The analysis comprised 905,115 person-years of data from people in five community-based National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute cohorts who had been free of CVD at baseline. An optimal risk-factor profile was defined as that of a nondiabetic nonsmoker with blood pressure <120/<80 mm Hg and total cholesterol <180 mg/dL.
At the index ages of 45 and 55 years, the overall lifetime risk for total CVD was about 60…