Physician directs heart association update

Pearson

To avert a first heart attack or stroke, physicians should routinely assess patients' general risk of cardiovascular disease beginning at age 20, according to new American Heart Association recommendations from a panel headed by Thomas Pearson, professor and chair of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine.

"The imperative to prevent the first episode of coronary disease or stroke remains strong because many first-ever heart attacks or strokes are fatal or disabling," says Pearson. "The challenge for health care professionals is to begin comprehensive risk reduction for more patients at an earlier stage of their disease."

The AHA Guidelines for Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke: 2002 Update also recommends that physicians calculate the risk of developing cardiovascular disease in the next 10 years for people age 40 and older or for anyone who has multiple risk factors.

"Health care providers should be asking about smoking and measuring blood pressure and cholesterol levels," says Pearson. "The public should be encouraged to ask their physicians and other health care providers about these important issues in disease prevention."

The updated guidelines incorporate new findings and expert opinions that have emerged since the American Heart Association published the recommendations in 1997.

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