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Wednesday, February 14, 2007Women may soon have a better idea of what their actual cardiovascular disease risk is for the next 10 years and beyond. That's because researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston have developed a new cardiovascular disease assessment tool specifically for female patients. The new risk model, called the Reynolds Risk Score, includes family history and blood levels of highly sensitive C-reactive protein (a marker of inflammation), in addition to more traditional risk factors. If it involves C-reactive protein, then surely it involves the patent holder of C-reactive protein testing, the media's favorite cardiolgist Dr. Paul Ridker. Yes, it does: "The Reynolds Risk Score provides a very easy way for women and physicians to truly understand what the cardiovascular risk is, not only for 10 years, but for 20 and 30 years," explained the study's lead author, Dr. Paul Ridker, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "Of the approximately 10 million American women who have an intermediate risk of heart disease based on current guidelines, about 50 percent would be classified into higher or lower categories [based on the Reynolds Risk Score]." The Reynold's Risk Score is very similar to the way we already calculate a patient's risk for coronary artery disease, except that it includes the high-sensitivity C-reactive protein. Although this test has gotten a lot of good press, it's value as a screening tool remains to be proven, no matter how much stasticial manipulation it's patent holder puts it through. You have to hand it to him, though, he's a medical marketing genius. He designed his study to target women and got it published and press released for Valentine's Day. I'm sure I'll have an uptick in women patients requesting their Reynold's Risk Score, which will translate into more requests for high sensitivity C-reactive protein. posted by Sydney on 2/14/2007 08:18:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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