Deep Diving Into the Cardiovascular Health Paradox: A Journey Towards Personalized Prevention.

Objectives: The Life's Simple 7 score (LS7) promotes cardiovascular health (CVH). Despite this, some with optimal LS7 develop cardiovascular disease (CVD), while others with poor CVH do not, termed the "CVH paradox." This paper explores pathways explaining this paradox. Methods: We examined methodological aspects: 1) misclassification bias in self-reported lifestyle factors (smoking, physical activity, diet); 2) cumulative exposure to risk factors over a lifetime, impacting the CVH paradox. Punctual risk factor assessments are suboptimal for predicting outcomes. We proposed personalized prevention using "novel" elements to refine CVH assessment: 1) subclinical vascular disease markers, 2) metabolic biomarkers in blood and urine, 3) emerging risk factors, 4) polygenic risk scores (PRS), 5) epigenetics, and 6) the exposome. Results: Addressing the CVH paradox requires a multifaceted approach, reducing misclassification bias, considering cumulative risk exposure, and incorporating novel personalized prevention elements. Conclusion: A holistic, individualized approach to CVH assessment and CVD prevention can better reduce cardiovascular outcomes and improve population health. Collaboration among researchers, healthcare providers, policymakers, and communities is essential for effective implementation and realization of these strategies.

Non-Conventional Risk Factors: "Fact" or "Fake" in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention?

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), such as arterial hypertension, myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, etc., still represent the main cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. They significantly modify the patients' quality of life with a tremendous economic impact. It is well established that cardiovascular risk factors increase the probability of fatal and non-fatal cardiac events. These risk factors are classified into modifiable (smoking, arterial hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, low HDL cholesterol, diabetes, excessive alcohol consumption, high-fat and high-calorie diet, reduced physical activity) and non-modifiable (sex, age, family history, of previous cardiovascular disease). Hence, CVD prevention is based on early identification and management of modifiable risk factors whose impact on the CV outcome is now performed by the use of CV risk assessment models, such as the Framingham Risk Score, Pooled Cohort Equations, or the SCORE2. However, in recent years, emerging, non-traditional factors (metabolic and non-metabolic) seem to significantly affect this assessment. In this article, we aim at defining these emerging factors and describe the potential mechanisms by which they might contribute to the development of CVD.

Diet, Lifestyle and Cardiovascular Diseases: Linking Pathophysiology to Cardioprotective Effects of Natural Bioactive Compounds.

Heart and blood vessels disorders comprise one of the main causes of death worldwide. Pharmacologically active natural compounds have been used as a complementary therapy in cardiovascular disease around the world in a traditional way. Dietary, natural bioactive compounds, as well as healthy lifestyles, are considered to prevent coronary artery diseases. Pre-clinical and clinical studies reported that consumption of plant-food bioactive derivatives including polyphenolic compounds, peptides, oligosaccharides, vitamins, unsaturated fatty acids possess protective effects on cardiovascular diseases. This review aims to summarize the cardiovascular risk factors, pre-clinical studies and clinical trials related to cardioprotective properties of the plant-food-derived bioactive compounds. Molecular mechanisms by the natural bioactive compounds exert their cardiovascular protective properties have also been highlighted.

Risk Factors for Coronary Artery Disease in Indians.

BACKGROUND: A case control study was carried out to study the emerging risk factors for coronary artery disease in Indians. METHODS: The diagnosis of coronary artery disease was based on correlation of clinical, biochemical, electrocardiography, echocardiography, treadmill testing and coronary arteriography findings. The study comprised 100 cases of coronary artery disease (acute coronary syndrome and chronic coronary artery disease) and 100 controls in two tertiary care service hospitals. The subjects were evaluated for total plasma homocysteine, insulin, C-reactive protein (CRP), lipoprotein fibrinogen and anti-chlamydial anti-bodies. RESULT: Male to female ratio was 10:1 in study group with similar predominance of males in controls. Mean age of the cases was 47 years (range 25-59 years) and that of controls was 43 years (range 23-56 years). 64% cases had acute coronary syndrome and 34% had chronic coronary artery disease. In the coronary artery disease population, 76% cases had hyperhomocyteinemia, 9% hyperinsulinaemia, 11% abnormal CRP values, 23% abnormal lipoprotein (a) levels, 40% IgG anti-chlamydial anti-bodies and only 11% had Ig M anti-chlamydial antibodies. In the control population, 72% had hyperhomocystinaemia and 6% hyperinsulinaemia while 23% and 9% controls had IgG and IgM anti chlamydial antibodies respectively. In control group 19% cases had abnormal lipoprotein(a) levels and only 2% had abnormal C reactive protein values. Significant correlation of CAD was seen with CRP values and Ig G anti-chlamydial antibodies. Both the study group and controls had higher homocysteine levels than that observed in some Indian and Western studies. CONCLUSION: High C reactive protein levels and Ig G anti-chlamydial antibodies are associated with coronary artery disease in Indians. Insulin, lipoprotein A, fibrinogen, lgM anti-chlamydial antibodies and higher levels of total plasma homocysteine have no significant association with coronary artery disease.

Emerging risk factors for cardiovascular diseases: Indian context.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is globally considered as the leading cause of death with 80% of CVD related deaths being reported from low and middle income countries like India. The relatively early onset age of CVD in India in comparison to Western countries also implies that most productive ages of the patient's life are lost fighting the disease. Conventional cardiovascular risk is attributed to lifestyle changes and altered metabolic activity. This forms the basis of a 10-year risk prediction score inspired by the Framingham study. Since South Asians display considerable heterogeneity in risk factors as compared to developed countries, there is a need to identify risk factors which would not only help in primary prevention but also prevent their recurrence. We reviewed published data on novel risk factors and their potential to identify cardiovascular risk at an early stage, with special emphasis on the Indian population. Emerging risk factors were reviewed to identify their potential to prevent CVD progression independently as well as in association with other cardiovascular risk factors. The most commonly studied emerging cardiovascular risk factors included coronary artery calcium score, lipoprotein (a), apolipoproteins, homocysteine, thrombosis markers like fibrinogen, and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1, carotid intima-media thickness, genotypic variations, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, C-reactive protein, platelets, and birth weight levels. Nonetheless, more studies on large sample size can ascertain the utility of these risk factors in estimation and analysis of cardiovascular risk especially in the Indian context.

Cervical artery dissection: emerging risk factors.

Cervical artery dissection (CAD) represents an increasingly recognized cause of stroke and the most common cause of ischemic stroke in young adults. Many factors have been identified in association with CAD such as primary disease of arterial wall (fibrodysplasia) and other non-specific diseases related to CAD like Ehlers Danlos-syndrome IV, Marfan's syndrome, vessel tortuosity. Moreover, an underlying arteriopathy which could be in part genetically determined, has been suspected. The rule of emerging risk factors for CAD such as recent respiratory tract infection, migraine and hyperhomocysteinemia are still a matter of research. Other known risks factors for CAD are major head/neck trauma like chiropractic maneuver, coughing or hyperextension injury associated to car. We examined emerging risks factors for CAD detected in the last years, as CAD pathogenesis is still not completely understood and needs further investigations.