APPLICATION OF THE QRISK HEART AGE CALCULATOR IN INDIAN CLINICAL SETTINGS

Introduction: Heart age reflects the predicted age of a person's vascular system based on their cardiovascular (CV) risk factor profile, including the estimated 10-year risk of heart attack or stroke. This study aimed to evaluate heart age and CV risk using the QRISK3 calculator in an Indian setting. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in India. The QRISK3-2018 calculator (https://www.qrisk.org/) was used to estimate 10-year cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and heart age. Patients' variables, including gender, height, weight, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diabetes mellitus (DM), smoking status, atrial fibrillation (AF), and chronic kidney disease (CKD), were manually entered into the calculator. A total of 4,663 records were reviewed, with QRISK3 scores calculated for 4,530 patients Results: ; 133 were excluded due to incomplete data. The majority is male (64.7%). The mean (standard deviation) age and heart age were 55.3 (12.6) years and 59.6 (13.1) years, respectively. The mean (standard deviation) SBP of patients was 120.5 (14.8) mmHg. Most patients (85.3%) were non-smokers, while 10.1% quit smoking and 4.5% were current smokers. The DM was present in 35.7%, CKD in 2.4%, and AF in 2.0% of patients. The median (range) of the QRISK score was 9.8 (0.10-50.00). A higher proportion of females (63.7%) were in the low-risk group compared to males (43.2%) [P<0.001]. The QRISK3 score was strongly correlated with age (r=0.893), heart age (r=0.978), and weakly with SBP (r=0.172) (P<0.001 for all). The Conclusion: QRISK score reported positive correlations with age, heart age, and a weak but significant correlation with SBP. Higher CV risk was more prevalent among males, smokers, and patients with diabetes, CKD, or AF. Risk distribution varied significantly by gender, smoking status, and comorbidities.