What This Means
This research suggests that a relatively new cardiovascular risk calculator developed by the American Heart Association, called PREVENT (Predicting Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Events), can identify people with hidden signs of heart disease even before symptoms appear. The study examined over 1,100 adults who had no known heart disease and used heart ultrasounds (echocardiography) and CT scans measuring calcium buildup in coronary arteries to detect these early, silent signs. They found that 16% of participants had subtle signs of heart failure (mostly stiff heart muscle, called diastolic dysfunction), and 41% had calcium deposits in their coronary arteries indicating early-stage coronary artery disease.
The key finding is that as the PREVENT risk scores increased, the likelihood of having these hidden heart problems rose dramatically. For example, people in the intermediate or high risk category for heart failure had diastolic dysfunction at a rate of 44%, compared to only 6% in the low-risk group. Similarly, people at higher predicted risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease were far more likely to have significant calcium buildup in their arteries. Importantly, the risk scores were especially good at identifying people with more severe calcium deposits (scores above 100 or 300), with the odds of having severe calcification being more than five times higher per unit increase in predicted risk.
This research suggests that PREVENT scores, which can be calculated from routine clinical information, may be useful for flagging people who would benefit from further testing or early preventive interventions — even when they have no symptoms. This is significant because treating cardiovascular disease early, before symptoms develop, generally leads to better outcomes. The strong performance of these scores across both heart failure and coronary artery disease endpoints, and across a diverse community sample, supports their potential value as a screening tool in everyday clinical practice.