BACKGROUND Participant-reported health status is a key indicator of cardiovascular health, but its predictive value relative to traditional and nontraditional risk factors is unknown. We evaluated whether participant-reported health status, as indexed by self-rated health, predicted cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality risk excess of 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (AS...

There are numerous particles, enzymes, and mechanisms in the lipid metabolism that are involved in the genesis of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Given its prevalence in populations and its impact on mortality, it is relevant to review the lipid metabolism as it may potentially provide subsidies to better prediction. This article reviews the importance of traditional cardiovascular risk factors a...

The incidence of coronary heart disease in premenopausal women is lower than in men because of their hormonal protection. Angina pectoris occurs in women about 10 years later than in men. However, mortality from ischaemic heart disease remains higher in women than in men. Current studies are focusing on novel cardiovascular risk biomarkers because it seems that traditional cardiovascular risk f...

BACKGROUND Interest in cardiovascular biomarkers in primary prevention has increased dramatically in the past decade. This increase has been fueled by an improved understanding of cardiovascular pathophysiology, as well as novel technologies for biomarker identification. CONTENT In this review we provide a brief overview of recent concepts in the evaluation of screening biomarkers, because bi...

Prevention and risk management of atherosclerotic vascular disease remain major health challenges. Coronary heart disease (CHD) and other cardiovascular diseases remain the primary causes of mortality and morbidity in developed countries. Improvement of risk stratification by identification of new biomarkers has been extensively investigated in both primary and secondary clinical settings in th...

Is There a Need for New Cardiovascular Biomarkers? Discovery of novel biomarkers and improvement of risk prediction algorithms will be a key to fulfill the promise of personalized medicine. Although genuine personalized treatment is probably an unrealistic expectation within the budget constraints of current health systems, a stratified medicine approach to identify individuals at high risk may...

BACKGROUND Controversy exists about the incremental utility of nontraditional lipid biomarkers [e.g., apolipoprotein (apo) B, apo A-I, and non-HDL-C] in improving cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk prediction when added to a conventional model of traditional risk factors (e.g., total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, sex, age, smoking status, and blood pressure). Here we present a s...

BACKGROUND Individual markers of inflammation may add incremental predictive value in the context of conventionally available risk factors. We evaluated the ability of 9 inflammatory biomarkers, microalbuminuria, and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (Nt-proBNP) to improve cardiovascular risk prediction beyond that obtained from traditional risk factors in a secondary-prevention populati...