Assessment of Risk Factors for Atherosclerosis in Individuals of Different Categories of Cardiovascular Risk Using the Aterostop Calculator

Aim        To analyze first results of using the Aterostop calculator for a comprehensive evaluation of the risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVD).Material and methods        A cross-sectional study analyzed major and additional risk factors in 460 subjects without apparent disease and in patients with documented CVD of atherosclerotic origin using the application (calculator) Aterostop developed in the National Medical Research Center of Cardiology in Moscow, Russia.Results   45.4% of evaluated persons belonged to the categories of very high and extreme risk. Age and frequencies of smoking, arterial hypertension, and diabetes mellitus (DM) increased with the increase in risk; the growth of DM was exponential. 129 (28%) individuals used lipid-lowering medications at the time of study. Their plasma levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were significantly lower than in those who did not received this treatment. However, achieving the target level was inversely proportional to the risk: the greatest proportion of individuals who reached the LDL-C target was in the category of low risk and the smallest proportion was in the category of extreme risk (75 % vs. 3.7 %, respectively).Conclusion            The results obtained with the calculator Aterostop were consistent with earlier reports of insufficient effectiveness of primary and secondary prevention of atherosclerotic CVDs, which requires more tight and fruitful cooperation of the physician and the patient.