Accuracy of Numerical Coronary Profile: Correlation of Risk Factors with Arteriographically Documented Severity of Atherosclerosis

We compared a coronary risk profile (developed by the Framingham Study) based on age, sex, cigarette smoking, glucose intolerance, left ventricular hypertrophy, systolic blood pressure and serum cholesterol to angiographically determined severity of coronary-artery disease in 158 consecutive patients undergoing cardiac catheterization. A profile of 1.0 indicated average relative risk. Risk profiles for 105 patients with angiographically documented coronary-artery disease was 1.52 whereas it was 1.08 for the group without coronary disease (P<0.01). There was no difference between the patients with coronary disease with (1.44) and those without previous infarct (1.46). The coronary risk profile, however, increased with increasing severity of coronary disease. The high-risk coronary patient can be identified by seven easily measured risk factors, and the extent of coronary-artery disease increases with the number and severity of coronary risk factors. (N Engl J Med 296:1447–1450, 1977) Although the exact pathogenesis of Coronary Artery disease remains obscure, certain risk factors have been elucidated by basic,¹ clinical² and epidemiologic^3,4 research. Nevertheless, some investigators doubt the importance and utility of the risk-factor concept.⁵ Others, both in the field of epidemiology⁶ and in that of cardiology,⁷ have been equally insistent about the importance of the concept and its value in identifying the young, asymptomatic highrisk patient. This paper describes the applications of the predictive epidemiologic model with multivariate analysis of coronary risk factors as determined in the Framingham Study⁸ to patients with angiographically defined heart disease. Materials and Methods To.