Guidelines useful in assessing women's CHD risk. (Several Available).(coronary heart disease)

SAN FRANCISCO--Use published guidelines to assess a woman's risk of cardiovascular disease and determine appropriate management, Dr. Mary S. Beattie advised at a conference on women's health sponsored by the University of California, San Francisco.

A scoring system developed by the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) using points based on risk factors identified in the long-running Framingham Heart Study is easy to use and provides a tangible idea of the patient's risk for developing coronary heart disease (CHD), Dr. Beattie said (See box for how to obtain the scoring system.)

A patient's score predicts her risk over the next 10 years and is determined by her age, total and HDL cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, and number of cigarettes smoked, if …