Step 4 What Is Your Risk For Heart Attack - Your Personal Risks And Goals: Heart Disease
Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School
Step 4: What is your risk for heart attack?
Use the heart attack calculator (Table 6 for men or Table 7 for women) to determine your risk of having a heart attack or dying from some type of cardiac event in the next 10 years. To use these charts, add up the number of points that apply to you. Points are given to different risk factors for heart disease (age, total cholesterol, smoking, and so on). Protective factors, such as young age and high HDL, are assigned negative points. The higher the total points, the greater your risk and the more aggressive the recommended treatment. Note that a 3% risk means that 3 out of 100 people with your risk profile will have a heart attack in the next 10 years, a 10% risk means that 10 out of 100 people with your risk profile will have one in the next 10 years, and so on.
Table 6: Heart attack calculator for men |
| I. Age | |||||||||||
| Age | 20–34 | 35–39 | 40–44 | 45–49 | 50–54 | 55–59 | 60–64 | 65–69 | 70–74 | 75–79 | |
| Points | –9 | –4 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | |
| Your points | _______ | ||||||||||
| II. Total cholesterol level | |||||
| Total cholesterol (mg/dL) | Age 20–39 | Age 40–49 | Age 50–59 | Age 60–69 | Age 70–79 |
| <160 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 160–199 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 200–239 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| 240–279 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| ≥ 280 | 11 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 1 |
| Your points | _______ | ||||
| III. Do you smoke? | |||||
| Age 20–39 | Age 40–49 | Age 50–59 | Age 60–69 | Age 70–79 | |
| Nonsmoker | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Smoker | 8 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Your points | _______ | ||||
| IV. HDL level | |
| HDL (mg/dL) | Points |
| ≥60 | –1 |
| 50–59 | 0 |
| 40–49 | 1 |
| <40 | 2 |
| Your points | _______ |
| V. Blood pressure | |||
| Systolic BP (mm Hg) | If untreated | If treated | |
| <120 | 0 | 0 | |
| 120–129 | 0 | 1 | |
| 130–139 | 1 | 2 | |
| 140–159 | 1 | 2 | |
| ≥160 | 2 | 3 | |
| Your points | _______ | ||
| SCORING: Your 10-year heart attack risk | |
| Total points: I. _______ + II. _______ + III. _______ + IV. _______ + V. _______ = _______ | |
| Total points | 10-year risk |
| <0 | <1% |
| 0 | 1% |
| 1 | 1% |
| 2 | 1% |
| 3 | 1% |
| 4 | 1% |
| 5 | 2% |
| 6 | 2% |
| 7 | 3% |
| 8 | 4% |
| 9 | 5% |
| 10 | 6% |
| 11 | 8% |
| 12 | 10% |
| 13 | 12% |
| 14 | 16% |
| 15 | 20% |
| 16 | 25% |
| ≥17 | ≥30% |
| Adapted from the Third Report of the National Cholesterol Education Program. For an online version, go to www.nhlbi.nih.gov . | |
Table 7: Heart attack calculator for women |
| I. Age | |||||||||||
| Age | 20–34 | 35–39 | 40–44 | 45–49 | 50–54 | 55–59 | 60–64 | 65–69 | 70–74 | 75–79 | |
| Points | –7 | –3 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 | |
| Your points | _______ | ||||||||||
| II. Total cholesterol level | |||||
| Total cholesterol (mg/dL) | Age 20–39 | Age 40–49 | Age 50–59 | Age 60–69 | Age 70–79 |
| <160 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 160–199 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 200–239 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| 240–279 | 11 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| ≥ 280 | 13 | 10 | 7 | 4 | 2 |
| Your points | _______ | ||||
| III. Do you smoke? | |||||
|
| Age 20–39 | Age 40–49 | Age 50–59 | Age 60–69 | Age 70–79 |
| Nonsmoker | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Smoker | 9 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Your points | _______ | ||||
| IV. HDL level | |
| HDL (mg/dL) | Points |
| ≥60 | –1 |
| 50–59 | 0 |
| 40–49 | 1 |
| <40 | 2 |
| Your points | _______ |
| V. Blood pressure | |||
| Systolic BP (mm Hg) | If untreated | If treated | |
| <120 | 0 | 0 | |
| 120–129 | 1 | 3 | |
| 130–139 | 2 | 4 | |
| 140–159 | 3 | 5 | |
| ≥160 | 4 | 6 | |
| Your points | _______ | ||
| SCORING: Your 10-year heart attack risk | |
| Total points: I. _______ + II. _______ + III. _______ + IV. _______ + V. _______ = _______ | |
| Total points | 10-year risk |
| <9 | <1% |
| 9 | 1% |
| 10 | 1% |
| 11 | 1% |
| 12 | 1% |
| 13 | 2% |
| 14 | 2% |
| 15 | 3% |
| 16 | 4% |
| 17 | 5% |
| 18 | 6% |
| 19 | 8% |
| 20 | 11% |
| 21 | 14% |
| 22 | 17% |
| 23 | 22% |
| 24 | 27% |
| ≥25 | ≥30% |
| Adapted from the Third Report of the National Cholesterol Education Program. For an online version, go to www.nhlbi.nih.gov. | |
| Last updated: | May 03, 2007 |
|---|
Medical content reviewed by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School. Harvard Health Publications, Copyright © 2007 by President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Used with permission of StayWell.
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