Addition of estimated cardiorespiratory fitness to the clinical assessment of 10-year coronary heart disease risk in asymptomatic men

The Framingham Risk Score (FRS) was developed to quantify a patient's coronary heart disease (CHD) risk. Non-exercise estimated CRF (e-CRF) may provide a clinically practical method for describing cardiorespiratory fitness. We computed e-CRF and tested its association with the FRS and CHD. Male participants (n\ua0=\ua029,854) in the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study (ACLS) who completed a baseline examination between 1979–2002 were followed for 12 years to determine incident CHD defined by self-report of myocardial infarction, revascularization, or CHD mortality. e-CRF was defined from a 7-item scale and categorized using age-specific tertiles. Multivariable survival analysis determined associations between FRS, e-CRF, and CHD. Interaction between e-CRF and FRS was tested by stratified analysis by ‘low’ and ‘moderate or high’ 10-year CHD risk. Men with high e-CRF were significantly (p-value\ua