Atherosclerotic Burden is the Highway to Cardiovascular Events

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is still a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and its risk factors have already been identified. Dyslipidemia, high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, diabetes and adiposity are frequently present, mostly in combination, in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). ^, Identifying patients at risk for developing CAD and presenting acute coronary syndromes is of great value, and many scores were created with this aim, such as the Framingham risk score, the ASSIGN score and the QRISK^R2 risk score.

CHA₂DS₂VASc score, which comprises congestive heart failure (C), hypertension (H), age ≥ 75 (A₂), diabetes (D), stroke or transient ischemic attack (S₂), vascular disease (V), age 65-74 years (A) and male gender (Sc), was originally developed to predict stroke risk in patients with atrial fibrillation. Recently, the CHA₂DS₂VASc score was also associated with major adverse events in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) non-ST elevation acute coronary syndromes ^, and in patients with chronic stable ischemic disease. Moreover, Tasolar et al. and Chua et al. demonstrated its association with coronary artery disease severity.

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