Identifying patients at high risk of a cardiovascular event in the near future: current status and future directions: report of a national heart, lung, and blood institute working group.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute convened working group to provide basic and clinical research recommendations to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute on the development of an integrated approach for identifying those individuals who are at high risk for cardiovascular event such as acute coronary syndromes (ACS) or sudden cardiac death in the “near term.” The working group members defined near-term as occurring within 1 year of the time of assessment. The participants reviewed current clinical cardiology practices for risk assessment and state-of-the-science techniques in several areas, including biomarkers, proteomics, genetics, psychosocial factors, imaging, coagulation, and vascular and myocardial susceptibility. This report presents highlights of these reviews and a summary of suggested research directions.