High-sensitivity C-reactive protein and family history are independently associated with future cardiovascular events and have are incorporated into risk prediction models for both women and men.

The Reynolds Risk Score was developed and validated using data from 24,558 initially healthy American women who were followed over a ten-year period for the development of heart attack, stroke, angioplasty (balloon surgery to open an artery), coronary artery bypass surgery, or death related to heart disease. Full details of the Reynolds Risk Score are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association,(Ridker PM, Buring JE, Rifai N, Cook NR.

Development and validation of improved algorithms for the assessment of global cardiovascular risk in women: The Reynolds Risk Score. JAMA 2007;297:611-619). Funding for this project was provided by a research grant from the Donald W Reynolds Foundation and by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. The Reynolds Risk Score for men was similarly developed using data from 10,724 initially healthy non-diabetic American men who were followed over a ten-year period for the development of heart attack, stroke, angioplasty, bypass surgery, or death related to heart disease. Full details of the Reynolds Risk Score for men are published in Circulation (Ridker PM, Paynter NP, Rifai N, Gaziano JM, Cook NR. C-reactive protein and parental history improve global cardiovascular risk prediction: The Reynolds Risk Score for Men. Circulation 2008 (in press)).

From the developer of STAT Cholesterol