Limitations of Traditional Risk Scoring

Traditional risk factor scoring mechanisms for predicting cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes, have notable limitations. While effective at the population level, they often fail to accurately assess individual risk, as many patients experiencing their first myocardial infarction do not present with high-risk scores. This means that both low-risk individuals can suffer from serious cardiovascular events and high-risk individuals can remain asymptomatic. The introduction of advanced imaging techniques presents an opportunity to better guide preventative therapies by refining risk assessment beyond simple clinical factors.