Via practica 4/2023

Vascular age and modern concept of cardiovascular risk

Vascular aging begins in childhood. Vascular age is characterized by stiffness of the arteries, gradual loss of their elasticity, degenerative changes and formation of atherosclerotic plaques. The main, controllable cardiovascular risk factors (smoking, arterial hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity, diabetes mellitus and others) play an important role in the process of vascular aging. Despite advances in imaging examinations in the diagnosis and monitoring of atherosclerotic changes (atherosclerotic plaques, atherothrombosis), primary cardiovascular prevention (CV) remains one of the most important components of cardiovascular care. It is increasingly moving into lower age categories with the aim of correctly estimating CV risk and early pharmacological intervention. In particular, late treatment of dyslipidemias prolongs the period during which the vascular wall is exposed to atherogenic lipoproteins, resulting in irreversible atherosclerotic changes. Evaluation of vascular age is one of the possible tools of motivating the patient to treat risk factors and parallel with the new rules of stratification of CV risk, bring the new knowledges of prevention in vascular medicine.

Keywords: vascular age, cardiovascular risk, stratification, prevention