BACKGROUND Gender differences in prevalence and consequences of the metabolic syndrome as a strong predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD), are challenging problems. Postmenopausal status may explain in part the cause of acceleration of CVD with aging. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation of menopause and metabolic syndrome independent of aging among Iranian women. METH...

The Electron Beam CT (EBT) Coronary Calcium Score (CCS) is an independent predictor of coronary events and adds incremental information to standard risk factors. How to use this information was uncertain. To assist our referring physicians in utilizing this test, a web based calculator was created that combines the Framingham score risk with the EBT CCS risk to obtain a new risk for cardiac eve...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Framingham calculators are typically implemented in 1-on-1 settings to determine if a patient is at high risk for development of cardiovascular disease in the next 10 years. Because health care administrative datasets are including more clinical information, we explored how well administrative data-derived Framingham scores could identify persons who would have stroke dev...

BACKGROUND National and international primary CVD risk screening guidelines focus on using total CVD risk scores. Recently, we developed a non-laboratory-based CVD risk score (inputs: age, sex, smoking, diabetes, systolic blood pressure, treatment of hypertension, body-mass index), which can assess risk faster and at lower costs compared to laboratory-based scores (inputs include cholesterol va...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to investigate the pattern of distribution of risk factors for stroke and the 10-year probability of stroke by the Framingham risk score in hypertensive patients visiting private clinics vs. tertiary hospitals. METHODS A total of 2,490 hypertensive patients who attended 61 private clinics (1088 patients) and 37 tertiary hospitals (1402 patients) were e...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE External validation of the Framingham stroke risk function has been rarely performed. We assessed its predictive ability in a population-based cohort of French elderly. METHODS The sample comprised 6913 subjects from the 3C Study, aged 65 to 84 at baseline, who were followed up to 6 years. Predictive accuracy of the original Framingham stroke risk function was assessed ...

OBJECTIVES We tested the prognostic value of a new electrocardiographic (ECG) method (Perugia score) for diagnosis of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) in essential hypertension and compared it with five standard methods (Cornell voltage, Framingham criterion, Romhilt-Estes point score, left ventricular strain, Sokolow-Lyon voltage). BACKGROUND Several standard ECG methods for assessment of ...

Cerebral white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) have been associated with vascular risk factors, both of which are under genetic influence. We examined in a monozygotic twin sample whether the association between vascular risk and WMHs is influenced by overlapping genetic factors. We included 195 cognitively normal monozygotic twins (age = 70 ± 7 years), including 94 complete pairs. Regional WMH ...