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New European guidelines for CVD prevention are already available!

Today, new European guidelines on cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention in clinical practice were presented at the annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). Simultaneously, the guideline document was published in the European Heart Journal. The previous version of the guideline was issued in 2016, and over the past 5 years, a huge amount of new information has been published.

The new document discusses prevention in both apparently healthy people and in patients with already established CVD or diabetes mellitus and in people with other conditions associated with an increased CVD risk (such as chronic kidney disease or familial hypercholesterolemia). One of the most striking differences from the previous recommendations is the transition to an updated version of the European CVD risk calculator, namely the SCORE2 or SCORE2-OP tables for older age groups.

Another important innovation is that, although the target levels for risk factors have been aligned with other recent ESC guidelines, the current document proposes a stepwise approach to intensifying preventive treatments, while always taking into consideration potential benefit, other conditions, psychosocial factors and patient preferences. In this regard, the new guideline features a number of tools intended to support the shared decision-making process.

Like the previous version of the guideline, the new document goes beyond the individual level of prevention. It discusses policy interventions at the population level to improve heart health and promote healthy choices. These include measures to lower air pollution, reduce fossil fuel use, and limit carbon dioxide emissions. Other measures are greater availability of school playground spaces, and legislation that restricts marketing unhealthy food to children on television, the internet, social media, and food packaging, etc.

Reference: https://www.escardio.org/Guidelines/Clinical-Practice-Guidelines/2021-ESC-Guidelines-on-cardiovascular-disease-prevention-in-clinical-practice

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