European guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice: full text. Fourth Joint Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology and other societies on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice (constituted by representatives of nine societies and by invited experts).

The Third Joint Task Force Guidelines saw a change from CHD to CVD prevention, to reflect the fact that atherosclerosis may affect any part of the vascular tree. A new risk chart called SCORE (Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation) was developed which was based on 12 European cohort studies and allowed the estimation of 10-year risk of cardiovascular death. Separate charts were produced for high and low risk regions of Europe. More explicit clinical priorities were developed. Less emphasis was placed on the terms ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ prevention since risk is a continuum—asymptomatic persons may have investigational evidence of atherosclerotic disease. A rigorous external review process was undertaken