Background: Global cardiovascular risk is a new approach which allows the physicians to quantitate the prognosis of the patients. It is therefore possible that a score, based on the major cardiovascular risk factors, is correlated with some degree of cardiovascular anatomic damage. Since this hypothesis has been demonstrated with the Framingham risk score, we decided to verify it using another score (Progetto Cuore risk score), which is probably more precise in a european low-risk population, such as the italian one.
Methods: We studied 84 italian caucasian subjects (50 males and 34 females) with elevated blood pressure and/or dyslipidemia plus other possible cardiovascular risk factors.The subjects have never been treated for these reasons. The following evaluations were performed: history, clinical and laboratory determinations, echocardiogram, carotid echodoppler.
Results: The recruited people were on the whole characterized by a low cardiovascular risk, as confirmed by the low scores of the Progetto Cuore. Simple linear regression analysis showed significant associations between some parameters of early cardiovascular damage (left ventricular mass, intima-media thickness, and an integrated measure of both the carotid wall thickness and the presence of a plaque, called Carotid score) and some predictors. The highest significance was found between the cardiovascular structural results and the Progetto Cuore score. In a multivariate regression analysis our model, which included factors potentially linked to the cardiovascular anatomic changes, demonstrated that the Carotid score was significantly associated with age, sex and pulse pressure; intima-media thickness with the same factors and, in addition, with the body mass index; left ventricular mass with sex, pulse pressure and body mass index.
Conclusion: Our paper confirms previous studies about the association between a comprehensive risk score and signs of early cardiovascular damage. A temporally limited exposure to cardiovascular risk factors, in particular to blood pressure, is already able to induce significant changes in both the heart structure and the vascular wall. Also in a european low-risk population the use of a cardiovascular risk score program, such as the Progetto Cuore in Italy, allows a quite precise estimation of the possible cardiovascular damage.