Background: Cardiovascular disease, which is one of the main causes of mortality in industrialised countries, is ever increasingly the focus of prevention. In this study, called "Cardiorisk", we evaluated cardiovascular risk in the population of blood donors at the Service of Immunohaematology and Transfusion Medicine in Parma.
Patients and methods: Between January 2007 and December 2008, 6,172 consecutive blood donors (aged 35-65 years) were enrolled in this project which entailed calculating each subject's cardiovascular risk score, based on an evaluation of both unalterable risk factors (age and gender) and modifiable risk factors (total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, glycaemia, smoking, hypertension) as well as anti-hypertensive and/or cholesterol-lowering therapy.
Results: Of the 6,172 donors enrolled in the study, 5,039 (81.7%) had a low cardiovascular risk (score from 0-10), 774 (12.5%) had a moderate cardiovascular risk (score from 11-19) and 359 (5.8%) donors had a high cardiovascular risk (score from 20-28).
Conclusions: In our opinion, the calculation of cardiovascular risk is an important instrument for preventive medicine in blood donors.
Keywords: blood donors; cardiovascular risk factors; cardiovascular risk score.