title: A clinician's guide to the ABCs of cardiovascular disease prevention: the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease and American College of Cardiology Cardiosource Approach to the Million Hearts Initiative.
abstract: Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States and worldwide. Fortunately, it is often preventable with early adoption of lifestyle modification, prevention of risk factor onset, and aggressive treatment of existing risk factors. The Million Hearts Initiative is an effort by the Centers for Disease Control that aims to prevent 1 million myocardial infarctions and strokes over the next 5 years. As part of this initiative, we present a simply organized "ABCDE" approach for guiding a consistent comprehensive approach to managing cardiovascular risk in daily clinical practice. ABCDE stands for assessment of risk, antiplatelet therapy, blood pressure management, cholesterol management, cigarette/tobacco cessation, diet and weight management, diabetes prevention and treatment, and exercise, interventions regularly used to reduce cardiovascular (CV) risk. Throughout this article we summarize recommendations related to each topic and reference landmark trials and data that support our approach. We believe that the ABCDE approach will be the core framework for addressing CV risk in our effort to prevent CVD.
authors.affiliation: Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA. steven.hsu@jhmi.edu
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Van-Khue
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Ton
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dominique Ashen
authors.forename: Seth S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Ty J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Gluckman
authors.forename: Payal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kohli
authors.forename: Stephen D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Sisson
authors.forename: Roger S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Blumenthal
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Blaha
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000924:Anticholesteremic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010975:Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011322:Primary Prevention / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D055502:Secondary Prevention / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D015431:Weight Loss
chemical_list: D000924:Anticholesteremic Agents; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents; D010975:Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors