[Assessment of cardiovascular risk in hypertensive patients: comparison among scores]

At present, a correct and thorough risk evaluation represents the best prognostic and therapeutic approach for hypertensive patients. Recent European and American guidelines recommend a global stratification of the cardiovascular risk of hypertensive patients, based on the evaluation of risk factors, organ damage, and the clinical conditions associated with hypertension. A similar approach uses numerical risk scores that transform the percentage risk, calculated from large populations, into absolute values. These scores have been calculated by different research groups and scientific organizations with the aim of better defining the real risk of a given population over time. Many of these risk scores have been conceived by American and European scientific groups on the basis of the epidemiology of different risk variables in the respective populations; in general, north American hypertensives are exposed to a higher cardiovascular risk compared to Europeans and some European countries have a higher risk than others. The present review underlines the pivotal role of a correct risk evaluation of hypertension as reported in the guidelines. We briefly analyze the principal studies on risk scores: we compare the advantages and disadvantages of the different scores, as well as the similarities and differences, in order to demonstrate not only their utility, but also the possible equivalence of the different parameters considered.