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Researchers have discovered that, by considering the age of the patient and the information drawn from a straightforward blood test, it is possible to predict a person's risk of suffering from a chronic disease such as diabetes, heart attack or stroke in nearly 80% of cases. Tests for Diabetes, kidney or heart failure, coronary disease or chronic pulmonary disease, atrial fibrillation, cardiac arrhythmia, heart attack, stroke or dementia … Thanks to a simple test that considers the age of the patient and the information drawn from a straightforward blood test, it is now possible to detect whether a person might develop one of these common chronic illnesses in the next three years.
What is the Intermountain Chronic Disease Risk Score?
Scientists at the Intermountain Medical Center Hxeart Institute in Salt Lake City, Utah, headed by Heidi May, Ph.D., MSPH, have created and evaluated a novel clinical tool that they assert can precisely forecast an individual’s likelihood of developing a chronic disease. This tool, referred to as the Intermountain Chronic Disease Risk Score (ICHRON), determines your risk score by utilizing data from your personal electronic health records, which includes details from standard blood tests and your age. This facilitates the seamless incorporation of ICHRON as a screening technique during your regular medical check-ups or appointments.
Identifying the patients most at risk
This useful clinical tool, which is easy to reproduce and does not constitute any additional workload for general practitioners, was developed by an international team of researchers, who presented their findings to the annual American College of Cardiology (ACC) conference, in Washington. In the United States, more than half the adult population suffers from at least one of these chronic illness , so researchers hope that this test can be used to help physicians pinpoint which patients have the highest risk of developing said diseases.
The number of diabetes sufferers looks set to rise by 40%
According to predictions, the number of people suffering from diabetes, coronary disease, cardiac arrhythmia, heart attack or stroke is set to rise by 40% in the next ten years in the United States.
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