With a proliferation of guidelines designed to reduce costs based on the risk profiles of patients, and a more general trend towards a preventative care framework, it’s important to stay on top of the latest research into these risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

What constitutes a high-risk patient? What’s new in risk assessment? We've already discussed a new factor identified with a predictive value similar to cholesterol levels. Researchers have also found a gene that indicates high risk for heart disease in women.

Gene Identified Indicating Higher Risk of Cardiovascular Disease for Women

A team of researchers from University College London studied a group of genes previously linked to an increased risk of arterial disease and found a gene version that interacts negatively with naturally occurring high estrogen levels in women.

Approximately 33 percent of women studied had the high-risk "GG" version of the BCAR1 gene which resulted in a "6.1 percent higher risk of having a heart attack, stroke or diseased blood vessels, compared with those with the low-risk version of the gene, who had a 2.5 percent risk of such an event" over the course of the 5-year study, summarizes Medical News Today.

This development is particularly important considering the gender gap in cardiovascular disease. See also: Noel Bairey Merz's TED Talk on the subject.