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News / Headlines
American Journal of Cardiology to Publish the SHAPE Task Force
Report: A New Guideline for Screening Apparently Healthy Individuals
to Prevent a Heart Attack
New approach could prevent 90,000 sudden cardiac deaths and save
$21 billion annually
HOUSTON, July 10, 2006 – To accelerate the adoption and
standardization of heart attack screening methods, the July edition
of the American Journal of Cardiology will feature a new practice
guideline for screening subclinical cardiovascular disease in the
asymptomatic at-risk population. Developed by the SHAPE (Screening
for Heart Attack Prevention and Education) Task Force, an
international contingent of leading cardiologists and researchers
organized by the Association for Eradication of Heart Attack (www.AEHA.org),
the SHAPE guideline sets revolutionary standards for the careful and
responsible implementation of cardiovascular imaging technologies as
part of a comprehensive heart attack risk assessment and reduction
strategy.
The SHAPE guideline calls for non-invasive screening of all
asymptomatic men between ages 45 and 75 and women between ages 55
and 75 to assess their coronary plaque buildup or carotid wall
thickness.
An analysis by the SHAPE Task Force estimates that screening these
asymptomatic men and women could have the following potential
outcomes:
-
Prevent more than 90,000 deaths
from cardiovascular disease each year.
-
Reduce the population with a
history of heart attack – currently estimated to be 13.2 million
– by as much as 25 percent.
-
Save approximately $21.5 billion
annually by saving those at highest risk, most of whom are
unaware of the danger they are facing.
“Until SHAPE, there have been no national guidelines for screening
subclinical (hidden) coronary heart disease” said Dr. Morteza
Naghavi, chairman of the SHAPE Task Force who founded the AEHA
organization to focus on the eradication of heart attacks. “We
encourage hospitals, diagnostic clinics and physicians to comply
with SHAPE standards and provide their patients with
state-of-the-art preventive care.”
Heart attack and stroke account for more death and disability than
all cancers combined. Multiple screening tests are approved for
subclinical cancers such as mammography and colonoscopy. However,
none are approved for subclinical atherosclerosis, which underlies
both heart attack and stroke. This void leaves many individuals –
even those with severe atherosclerosis –unaware of their risk
because they have no symptoms.
“While nearly half of individuals who have heart attacks or sudden
death don’t even know they have disease, we already have treatments
that could prevent a large number of these catastrophic events,”
said Dr. Daniel Berman, director of Cardiac Imaging at Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center and a member of the SHAPE Task Force Editorial
Committee.
This year, more than 500,000 Americans will have a first heart
attack, almost all of which are expected to come from the SHAPE
eligible population.
“It is obvious that new strategies are needed to fight the growing
epidemic of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” said Dr.
Valentin Fuster, past president of the American Heart Association,
and director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai Medical
Center in New York who wrote an editorial commentary in the special
issue of the American Journal of Cardiology dedicated to the SHAPE
guideline. “By going beyond traditional risk assessment, the SHAPE
guideline has the potential to transform the field of preventive
cardiology.”
Relying solely on traditional risk factors to identify patients at
risk for a heart attack has proven to be unsuccessful. Many
physicians treat patients who have a huge amount of atherosclerotic
plaques (fat buildup in the arteries) the same way they treat those
with no plaques, simply because their risk factor levels (e.g.
cholesterol and blood pressure) are the same. This practice leaves
the high risk patients with an imminent threat of a heart attack or
stroke (the Vulnerable Patient) inadequately protected.
Unfortunately, most physicians are unaware of the threat because
they do not measure their patients’ plaque burden.
"Traditional risk factors play a major role in treatment for
prevention of heart attack, but they fail to reliably identify
individuals at risk of heart attack, which is best done through
assessing the total atherosclerotic plaque volume, structure and
function of the patient’s arteries as detailed in the SHAPE
guideline,” said Dr. Erling Falk, a pioneering cardiovascular
pathologist from Aarhus University in Denmark who coordinated the
Writing Group of the SHAPE Task Force.
Atherosclerosis, a metabolic and inflammatory disease that causes
plaque build up in arteries, is responsible for nearly all cases of
heart attack and most cases of strokes. Individuals with the highest
degree of atherosclerotic plaque burden are described as “the
Vulnerable Patient”. Such individuals exhibit no signs of heart
disease and are not identified as very-high-risk by traditional risk
factor assessment.
“With the publication of the SHAPE guideline, we hope to build a new
momentum in cardiology that inspires physicians to use modern
technologies for the prevention of heart attack, rather than using
expensive technologies only to treat heart attack, which is too late
and results in too little benefit to the patient,” said Dr. P.K.
Shah, director, Division of Cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center in Los Angeles who led the SHAPE Task Force Editorial
Committee.
While a variety of new tests for the detection of atherosclerosis
and abnormal arterial structure and function are emerging, the SHAPE
Task Force determined that two – coronary artery calcium (CAC)
measured by CT and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) and plaque
measured by ultrasonography – currently fulfil established stringent
criteria, including having: 1) abundant evidence for predictive
value, 2) availability, 3) reproducibility, 4) complementary value
with respect to the concept of the vulnerable patient, and/or 5)
cost-effectiveness relative to the status quo.
“We are far from eradicating heart attack, but SHAPE can be a major
step to advance prevention in the field of cardiology,” said Dr.
Pamela Douglas, Professor and Chief of Cardiology at Duke University
Medical Center and the immediate past president of the American
College of Cardiology. “What we as cardiologists practice today is
mostly sick-care, the future will have to be based on health care,
otherwise the wildly rising cost of medical care will bankrupt our
system.”
The AEHA plans to proliferate SHAPE accredited clinics nationwide.
The executive summary of the SHAPE guideline is available for
immediate download at www.AEHA.org.
The SHAPE Task Force Editorial Committee was led by Prediman K.
Shah, M.D. and included (in alphabetic order): Raymond Bahr, M.D.,
Daniel Berman, M.D., Roger Blumenthal, M.D., Matthew J. Budoff,
M.D., Jay Cohn, M.D., Erling Falk, M.D., Ph.D., Ole Faergeman, M.D.,
Zahi Fayad, Ph.D., Harvey S. Hecht, M.D., Michael J. Jamieson, M.D.,
Wolfgang Koenig, M.D., Ph.D., Daniel Lane, M.D., Ph.D., Naghavi,
John Rumberger, M.D., Ph.D. and Allen J. Taylor, M.D.
The SHAPE Task Force Writing Group was coordinated by Erling Falk,
M.D., Ph.D. and included (in alphabetic order): Juhani Airaksinen,
M.D., Dan Arking, Ph.D., Juan Badimon, Ph.D., Raymond Bahr, M.D.,
Daniel Berman, M.D., Matthew J. Budoff, M.D., Jay Cohn, M.D.,
Jasenka Demirovic, M.D., Ph.D., George A. Diamond, M.D., Pamela
Douglas, M.D., Ole Faergeman, M.D., Zahi Fayad, Ph.D., James A.
Goldstein, M.D., Harvey S. Hecht, M.D., Victoria L.M. Herrera, M.D.,
Michael J Jamieson, M.D., Sanjay Kaul, M.D., M.P.H., Wolfgang
Koenig, M.D., Ph.D., Robert A. Mendes, M.D., Naghavi, M.D.; Tasneem
Z. Naqvi, M.D., Ward A. Riley, Ph.D., Yoram Rudy, PhD, John
Rumberger, M.D., Ph.D., Leslee Shaw, Ph.D., Robert S. Schwartz, M.D.
and Arturo G. Touchard, M.D.
Advisors to the SHAPE Task Force included (in alphabetic order):
Arthur Agatston, M.D., Stephane Carlier, M.D., Ph.D., Raimund Erbel,
M.D., Chris deKorte, Ph.D., Craig Hartley, Ph.D., Ioannis Kakadiaris,
Ph.D., Roxana Mehran, M.D., Daniel O'Leary, M.D., Jan Nilsson, M.D.,
Gerard Pasterkamp, M.D., Ph.D., Paul Schoenhagen, M.D. and Henrik
Sillesen, M.D., Ph.D.
Valentin Fuster, M.D., Ph.D. served as guest editor.
Publication of the SHAPE Task Force report was funded by Pfizer Inc.
About the Society for Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication
(SHAPE):
The mission of SHAPE (www.shapesociety.org) is to eradicate heart
attack by championing new strategies for prevention while advancing
the scientific quest for a cure. SHAPE visualizes a world free from
the threat of heart attack. The goals of SHAPE are to reduce the
instances of heart attack - especially in the asymptomatic patient -
through education programs presented to both healthcare
professionals and the community. SHAPE believes that education and
ongoing research are key elements in the success of programs
designed to go beyond the norm in the early detection and treatment
of cardiovascular disease. |
