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New heart disease risk score outperforms existing test
July 09, 2009An independent external validation of QRISK® - a new score for predicting a person's risk of heart disease - has shown that it performs better than the existing test and should be recommended for use in the United Kingdom by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
The University of Nottingham and leading healthcare systems supplier EMIS worked together, through the not-for-profit partnership QResearch, to develop the ground-breaking formula which has been strongly endorsed in new research published in the British Medical Journal.
Researchers from the University of Oxford have recommended its widespread use across the UK in place of the more commonly-used Framingham equation.
Professor Julia Hippisley-Cox of The University of Nottingham's Division of Primary Care, said: "We are delighted to receive another strong endorsement of the value of QRISK in assessing the risk of heart disease in the UK population. We believe this formula has the potential to save many thousands of lives, by helping clinicians to more accurately predict those at risk of developing cardiovascular disease - the nation's biggest killer. It will arm doctors with all the information they need to decide how best to target patients with preventative measures such as lifestyle advice and cholesterol-lowering treatments."
Soon every patient's record will contain an automatically calculated heart risk score allowing GPs to identify and target those at greatest risk.
NICE currently recommends that doctors use a modified version of the long established Framingham score to identify who should be offered statin treatment to reduce their risk of heart disease over the next 10 years.
However, in 2007, the BMJ published research showing that the new QRISK® score was a more accurate measure of how many UK adults are at risk of developing heart disease and which adults are most likely to benefit from treatment compared with the Framingham model. Now, two independent experts have compared the performance of the two scores for predicting the 10 year cardiovascular disease risk in over one million UK patients.
They tracked the progress of 1.07 million patients registered at 274 general practices in England and Wales for up to 12 years after first diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. All participants were aged between 35 and 74 at the start of the study.
The 56 per cent of GPs in the UK who use EMIS clinical records systems can already access the QRISK2 formula, which has been embedded in their systems.
EMIS Managing Director Sean Riddell said: "We are pleased to confirm that all EMIS GPs can now benefit from QRISK, and we would like to thank all those GPs who contributed anonymous patient data to support the development of this vital clinical tool."
Other clinical systems providers are able to access QRISK through a software development kit that has been designed to ensure the safe and accurate use of the formula. The QRISK software is also available for further academic research and teaching and personal use.
QRISK can be found at www.qrisk.org
The QRISK research was undertaken using the QResearch anonymised primary care database at The University of Nottingham in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, Bristol PCT and St Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, London.
The University of Nottingham
Professor Julia Hippisley-Cox of The University of Nottingham's Division of Primary Care, said: "We are delighted to receive another strong endorsement of the value of QRISK in assessing the risk of heart disease in the UK population. We believe this formula has the potential to save many thousands of lives, by helping clinicians to more accurately predict those at risk of developing cardiovascular disease - the nation's biggest killer. It will arm doctors with all the information they need to decide how best to target patients with preventative measures such as lifestyle advice and cholesterol-lowering treatments."
Soon every patient's record will contain an automatically calculated heart risk score allowing GPs to identify and target those at greatest risk.
NICE currently recommends that doctors use a modified version of the long established Framingham score to identify who should be offered statin treatment to reduce their risk of heart disease over the next 10 years.
However, in 2007, the BMJ published research showing that the new QRISK® score was a more accurate measure of how many UK adults are at risk of developing heart disease and which adults are most likely to benefit from treatment compared with the Framingham model. Now, two independent experts have compared the performance of the two scores for predicting the 10 year cardiovascular disease risk in over one million UK patients.
They tracked the progress of 1.07 million patients registered at 274 general practices in England and Wales for up to 12 years after first diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. All participants were aged between 35 and 74 at the start of the study.
The 56 per cent of GPs in the UK who use EMIS clinical records systems can already access the QRISK2 formula, which has been embedded in their systems.
EMIS Managing Director Sean Riddell said: "We are pleased to confirm that all EMIS GPs can now benefit from QRISK, and we would like to thank all those GPs who contributed anonymous patient data to support the development of this vital clinical tool."
Other clinical systems providers are able to access QRISK through a software development kit that has been designed to ensure the safe and accurate use of the formula. The QRISK software is also available for further academic research and teaching and personal use.
QRISK can be found at www.qrisk.org
The QRISK research was undertaken using the QResearch anonymised primary care database at The University of Nottingham in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, Bristol PCT and St Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, London.
The University of Nottingham
Heart Disease Current Events and Heart Disease News RSSMultiple health concerns surface as winter, vitamin D deficiences arrive
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Carvedilol shown to have unique characteristics among beta blockers
In a new study, researchers report that a class of heart medications called beta-blockers can have a helpful, or harmful, effect on the heart, depending on their molecular activity.
ESC to give talks on Diabetes in three cities in China
As a result of successful events organised last year, a second Joint Scientific Forum, organised by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), two of the most respected professional medical organisations in Europe, will be held from 27-29 November at three venues across China - Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Saving the single cysteine: new antioxidant system found
We've all read studies about the health benefits of having a life partner. The same thing is true at the molecular level, where amino acids known as cysteines are much more vulnerable to damage when single than when paired up with other cysteines.
Drug for erectile dysfunction improves heart function in young heart-disease patients
Heart function significantly improved in children and young adults with single-ventricle congenital heart disease who have had the Fontan operation following treatment with sildenafil, a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary hypertension, say researchers from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Study raises concerns about outdoor second-hand smoke
Indoor smoking bans have forced smokers at bars and restaurants onto outdoor patios, but a new University of Georgia study in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that these outdoor smoking areas might be creating a new health hazard.
Night Beat, Overtime and a Disrupted Sleep Pattern Can Harm Officers' Health
A police officer who works the night shift, typically from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., already is at a disadvantage when it comes to getting a good "night's" sleep.
Your Own Stem Cells Can Treat Heart Disease
The largest national stem cell study for heart disease showed the first evidence that transplanting a potent form of adult stem cells into the heart muscle of subjects with severe angina results in less pain and an improved ability to walk. The transplant subjects also experienced fewer deaths than those who didn't receive stem cells.
Vitamin B niacin offers no extra benefit to statin therapy in seniors already diagnosed with CAD
The routine prescription of extended-release niacin, a B vitamin (1,500 milligrams daily), in combination with traditional cholesterol-lowering therapy offers no extra benefit in correcting arterial narrowing and diminishing plaque buildup in seniors who already have coronary artery disease, a new vascular imaging study from Johns Hopkins experts shows.
Heart and bone damage from low vitamin D tied to declines in sex hormones
Researchers at Johns Hopkins are reporting what is believed to be the first conclusive evidence in men that the long-term ill effects of vitamin D deficiency are amplified by lower levels of the key sex hormone estrogen, but not testosterone.
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