Comparison of the Framingham and Reynolds Risk Scores for Global Cardiovascular Risk Prediction in the Multiethnic Women’s Health Initiative

Circ.ahajournals.org: April 10, 2012.

Background—Framingham-based and Reynolds Risk scores for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prediction have not been directly compared in an independent validation cohort.

Methods and Results—We selected a case-cohort sample of the multiethnic Women’s Health Initiative Observational Cohort, comprising 1722 cases of major CVD (752 myocardial infarctions, 754 ischemic strokes, and 216 other CVD deaths) and a random subcohort of 1994 women without prior CVD. We estimated risk using the Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP-III) score, the Reynolds Risk Score, and the Framingham CVD model, reweighting to reflect cohort frequencies. Predicted 10-year risk varied widely between models, with ≥10% risk in 6%, 10%, and 41% of women with the ATP-III, Reynolds, and Framingham CVD models, respectively. Calibration was adequate for the Reynolds model, but the ATP-III and Framingham CVD models overestimated risk for coronary heart disease and major CVD, respectively.  Read More