Risk treatment thresholds for initiating cardiovascular disease pharmacotherapy: Synthesis of international evidence to support guideline recommendations.

Background: A new Australian guideline for cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment and management was published in 2023, including new risk treatment thresholds.

Objective: This article summarises the published peer-reviewed global evidence that informed guideline recommendations on risk treatment thresholds for initiating blood pressure- and lipid-lowering therapy for CVD primary prevention.

Discussion: Evidence from 13 meta-analyses, randomised controlled trials and modelling studies involving more than 515,700 patients showed that preventive pharmacotherapy reduced the number of CVD events at all risk levels.

Risk estimation for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease: considerations for appropriate risk prediction model selection.

Cardiovascular diseases remain the number one cause of death globally. Cardiovascular disease risk scores are an integral tool in primary prevention, being used to identify individuals at the highest risk and guide the assignment of preventive interventions. Available risk scores differ substantially in terms of the population sample data sources used for their derivation and, consequently, in the absolute risks they assign to individuals.

The contribution of sodium reduction and potassium increase to the blood pressure lowering observed in the Salt Substitute and Stroke Study.

The Salt Substitute and Stroke Study (SSaSS) demonstrated significant reductions in systolic blood pressure (SBP), and the risk of stroke, major cardiovascular events and total mortality with the use of potassium-enriched salt. The contribution of sodium reduction versus potassium increase to these effects is unknown. We identified four different data sources describing the association between sodium reduction, potassium supplementation and change in SBP.

Switching the World's Salt Supply-Learning from Iodization to Achieve Potassium Enrichment.

Sodium is an essential dietary component, but excess sodium intake can lead to high blood pressure and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Many national and international bodies, including the World Health Organization, have advocated for population-wide sodium reduction interventions. Most have been unsuccessful due to inadequate sodium reduction by food industry and difficulties in persuading consumers to add less salt to food.