Nuevas herramientas en la estratificación del riesgo cardiovascular

One of the most common features of atherosclerotic disease is its clinical manifestation as unheralded cardiovascular events, i.e. myocardial infarction or stroke that present without any prior warning episode. This fact highlights the vital importance of being able to identify individuals at risk. The cornerstone of all preventive strategies have been the identification of those at risk using cardiovascular risk scales, such as the Framingham, SCORE, REGICOR, QRISK and Reynolds risk scores, and the appropriate treatment of cardiovascular risk factors. However, the effectiveness of this approach is limited because cardiovascular risk scales are not completely accurate, they are not applied universally and patients may not comply with treatment. In intermediate-risk patients, risk stratification can be improved further by using non-invasive imaging techniques or biomarkers. This review offers a conceptual approach to assessing cardiovascular risk on the basis of data provided by various biomarkers and imaging techniques used for detecting subclinical atherosclerosis.