Summary

The European Guidelines for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease are based on the concept of “total risk,” an approach that takes into account the continuous and synergistic nature of the factors that contribute to cardiovascular disease risk. Risk levels were developed using data from the SCORE project [Conroy RM et al. Eur Heart J 2003] and have been translated into a series of tables for ease of use. Using this approach cardiovascular risk can be estimated by taking into account all of the risk factors, rather than examining a single risk factor in isolation.