According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide, ahead of cancer, and in many cases, they can be prevented. The main task of a specialist in Vascular Risk is therefore, to control and treat all the risk factors that lead to developing arteriosclerosis or any vascular disease.

To achieve this, the internist schedules a comprehensive assessment of these factors or situations (hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, genetic burden, habits, overweight) and investigates the cardiovascular situation of the person and their risk of developing a disease in the form of ischemic events, such as a heart infarction or brain stroke.

Thus, on the one hand he will advise exhaustive analytics that report on the state of control of hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol and other risk markers, and on the other hand he will perform exploratory techniques such as ultrasound – which allows us to know the “vascular age” of the person, or a 24 hours Holter to measure the blood pressure. This work should be coordinated with other specialists (Cardiologists, Neurologists, Nephrologists) who will complete the study with other complementary techniques such as echocardiography or carotid Doppler.

People with a high vascular risk are usually complex patients because they have different risk factors simultaneously, and also because they have often already suffered a serious complication, such as a heart attack, a cerebral stroke, a kidney failure or an arrhythmia; they are what we call multi-pathological patients and the global and integrated assessment by the internist is crucial.

In our team, Dr. José Antonio Carmona is the responsible internist of the Vascular Risk Unit.