Cardiac Risk Calculation and Assessment

What is a Cardiac Risk Calculator?

The Cardiac Risk Calculator is a screening tool. You and your healthcare provider can use this calculator to determine your risk for future cardiovascular disease. This information can help you take steps to reduce your risk. Lifestyle changes and medications may help prevent life-threatening heart problems.

What does the Cardiac Risk Calculator (Cardiovascular Risk Assessment) do?

The Cardiac Risk Calculator uses your personal health information to measure your risk of future cardiovascular disease (heart disease). It can help you determine your chances of:

How are health care providers using cardiovascular risk assessment?

Healthcare providers use Cardiac Risk Calculator results to:

• Assess your current heart health.
• It assesses your risk of developing problems like high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which can lead to heart disease.
• It can help you take steps to prevent problems that affect your heart health.
• Choose the right treatment to lower your risk of heart disease.
• Monitor the effectiveness of treatment.

Who should not use the Cardiac Risk Calculator?

The cardiac risk calculator is only useful if you haven’t had a heart attack yet. If you have had a heart attack, stroke or heart failure, the information won’t help you.

What information does the Cardiac Risk Calculator (cardiovascular risk assessment) require?

There are several ways to assess your heart disease risk factors. In general, a heart disease risk assessment will take into account:

• Age, gender, race.
• Use of blood pressure and hypertension medications.
• Cholesterol levels and the use of statins to treat high cholesterol.
• Diabetic condition.
• Having a family history of heart attack or heart disease, especially if you are under 60 years old.
• A history of aspirin therapy to reduce the risk of heart disease.
• Smoking history (past, current, or never smoked).

What types of cardiac risk calculators (cardiovascular risk assessments) are there?

Cardiovascular risk assessments can be performed using a variety of online calculators and smartphone apps, or you can have an assessment done in your healthcare provider’s office. Each tool may ask for slightly different information, but the results should not be significantly different (if at all).

Below are some reliable cardiac risk calculators you and your healthcare provider can use.

ASCVD Risk Calculator

Healthcare professionals use the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD) Risk Calculator, also known as the ASCVD Risk Estimator Plus, which assesses the likelihood of developing heart disease in the next 10 years for people ages 40 to 79.

Atherosclerosis refers to the hardening or narrowing of arteries. This problem leads to heart disease. The tool can also estimate the lifetime risk of heart disease for people aged 20-59.

The ACC, in collaboration with the American Heart Association (AHA), has developed a reliable cardiac risk calculator. The online AHA cardiovascular (CV) risk calculator is a modification of the ASCVD risk calculator and asks fewer questions. However, your results should be similar.

Healthcare providers use ASCVD risk calculators to see how a particular treatment might improve your risk status. For example, taking a statin to lower high cholesterol might lower your risk from moderate to borderline or low risk. This improvement is called a treatment response. Both the AHA and ACC cardiac risk calculators suggest actions you can take to improve your risk score.

The ASCVD risk calculator can also show you how you can prevent heart disease by taking one or more of the following steps:

• Start or increase your dose of cholesterol-lowering medication.
• Start blood pressure medication or add new medication.
• Initiate or continue aspirin therapy.
• I will not smoke.

Reynolds Risk Score

The Reynolds Risk Score assesses heart disease risk for all genders without diabetes. The tool excludes people with diabetes because they are already at higher risk for heart disease and stroke.

The calculator also takes into account your high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels. Your doctor may request this information as part of your blood tests to determine your risk for coronary artery disease.

How is cardiac risk calculated?

The Heart Risk Calculator gives you your heart disease risk score as a percentage. The lower the percentage, the less likely you are to develop heart disease in the next 10 years. The higher the percentage, the more likely you are to experience serious heart problems now and in the future. The ASCVD Risk Calculator also predicts your lifetime risk of heart problems.

To determine your score, the tool compares your information with patient data from previous cardiac clinical studies.

Many cardiac risk calculators categorize your risk of cardiovascular disease as follows:

• low: The risk is less than 5%.
• border: Risk is 5% to 7.4%.
• Intermediate: The risk ranges from 7.5% to 19.9%.
• expensive: Risk of over 20%.

What other factors go into cardiac risk assessment?

Depending on your cardiovascular risk assessment score and symptoms (if you have them), your healthcare provider may order further testing, such as:

• Blood test for hsCRP.
• A lipid panel to measure total cholesterol, triglycerides, and lipoproteins (including lipoprotein(a)).
• Electrocardiogram (ECG).
• Exercise stress test.

How can I improve my heart disease risk score?

You can take the following steps to lower your risk of heart disease:

• Eat heart-healthy foods.
• Engage in regular aerobic exercise (at least 150 minutes per week).
• Limit your alcohol intake.
• Lose weight (if necessary) and maintain a healthy weight.
• Find healthy ways to manage stress.
• Get help to quit smoking and avoid secondhand smoke.
• Manage conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol.

News from Cleveland Clinic

A cardiac risk calculator (cardiovascular risk assessment) assesses your unique information to gauge your future risk of heart disease. You and your healthcare provider can use this information to take steps to reduce your risk. The ASCVD risk calculator assesses your risk of heart disease. It also shows how effective certain treatments may be in reducing this risk. You can receive a cardiac risk assessment online, via a smartphone app, or in your healthcare provider’s office. Share your home cardiac risk assessment information with your healthcare provider and discuss ways to protect your heart health.