New tool calculates cardiovascular risk in 5 painless steps

A simple, inexpensive tool could predict healthy individuals’ future risk of cardiovascular disease through just five painless calculations, Mount Sinai Health System reported Nov. 13 in a novel study. The paper was simultaneously published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The tool is called the Fuster-BEWAT score, and is just as effective—and less invasive—than the American Heart Association-recommended Ideal Cardiovascular Health Index (ICHS), researchers explained in a release from Mount Sinai. The calculator relies on five statistics to predict a risk score: a patient’s blood pressure, physical activity levels, body mass index, fruit and vegetable intake and smoking status.

“The Fuster-BEWAT score is an easy, painless, inexpensive tool that could be implemented in resource-constrained health care settings to identify individuals with a high likelihood of subclinical atherosclerosis at whom preventative management strategies can be directed,” lead author Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, said in the release. He said other tools, including ICHS, require blood samples and lab tests to calculate risk of atherosclerosis.

And those blood tests aren’t just inconvenient and at times unattainable—they’re expensive. The simple nature of the Fuster-BEWAT score means it’s a cheaper alternative to extensive testing, Fuster said in the release, noting it “may be particularly relevant in low-resource areas, such as developing countries, where the burden of cardiovascular disease is growing faster than in the rest of the world.”

The release stated Fuster’s work isn’t the first in the field—the Lancet-published PURE study proved cardiovascular risk could be assessed without blood analysis. The PURE trial enrolled patients of similar demographics to the Fuster-BEWAT study; healthy, middle-aged adults with no known history of cardiovascular disease.

Fuster’s study, which was conducted in Madrid, is a part of an international initiative that also includes partnerships with the National center for Cardiovascular Research in Spain, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Framingham Heart Study. The researchers plan to next investigate if patients showing ideal ICHS and Fuster-BEWAT scores show less progression of subclinical atherosclerosis and lower incidence of cardiovascular events over a greater period.