COMPARISON OF SCORE, SCORE2 AND FRAMINGHAM RISK SCORE BASED METHODS FOR VASCULAR AGE CALCULATION

Objective: Calculation of vascular age can help patients understand the importance of adherence to healthy lifestyle and medications. There are different possibilities to calculate vascular age including methods based on cardiovascular risk scores, but different methods can provide different vascular age results. Our aim was to evaluate vascular age based on the Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE), Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation 2 (SCORE 2) and Framingham Risk Score (FRS). Design and method: Subjects between the age of 40–65 years, who took part in a screening program in three general practitioner practices were involved. Vascular ages were defined based on SCORE, SCORE2 and FRS according to literature data. Results: 154 patients were involved to the study, among them 107 had hypertension (HT) and 13 had diabetes (DM). The chronological age of the total population was 54.6 (58.4 – 63.7) years, while SCORE, SCORE2 and FRS vascular ages were 55.0 (44.0 – 60.0), 57.5 (51.0 – 63.0) and 64.0 (54.0 – 76.8) years, respectively. In HT patients chronological age, SCORE, SCORE2 and FRS vascular ages were 54.1 (48.0 – 61.0), 55.0 (45.0 – 60.0), 58.0 (52.0 – 64.0) and 68.0 (59.0 – 80.0) years, respectively. In DM patients chronological age, SCORE, SCORE2 and FRS vascular ages were 58.6 (48.3 – 62.5), 58.0 (45.0 – 62.5), 60.0 (51.0 – 66.0) and 80.0 (76.0 – 80.0) years, respectively (p<0.05). Based on SCORE, SCORE2 and FRS 20.1%, 35.1% and 76.0% of the subjects had increased vascular age compared with chronological age, respectively (p< 0.05). 27 patients (17.5%) had elevated vascular age with SCORE and SCORE2, furthermore, 54 patients (35.1%) had elevated vascular age with SCORE2 and FRS. In addition, 27 patients had elevated vascular age with all the three methods. Conclusions: The differences found between the calculated vascular ages and the proportion of subjects with elevated vascular age warrants further detailed comparison of different vascular age calculation methods.