SHAPE on ReachMD XM 157 (Interviews with Drs. Naghavi and Shah)

ReachMD welcomes Dr. Morteza Naghavi and Dr. PK Shah as guests in their Radio XM 157 to provide an introduction to the SHAPE Initiative including SHAPE's medical education goals and campaign. In this segment, they also discuss screening for vulnerable plaque and reconciling FRS Scoring with established and emerging technologies for increased effectiveness at heart attack prevention.

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Listen to the segment below:

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SHAPE Symposium Photos at ACC '08

Held in The Wellington Ballroom at The Westin Michigan Avenue

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DON’T LET YOUR LOVED ONE HAVE A BROKEN HEART. Nonprofit organization calls for heart attack prevention testing for Valentine’s Day

(HOUSTON, TX, February 12, 2008) – The Society for Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication (SHAPE) today called on love birds aged 45 to 75 to give their significant others the gift of a heart attack prevention test.

Since last Valentine’s Day some 600,000 healthy looking Americans suffered a sudden heart attack. Sadly more than half of them died before reaching a hospital, leaving their loved ones in pain and sorrow. What is especially sad is that most of these victims could have been alerted to their risk and possibly saved had they undergone a heart prevention test. “Having normal (average) cholesterol does not mean that you will not have a heart attack, in fact over 60 percent of heart attack victims have normal cholesterol,” said Dr. Morteza Naghavi, Chairman of the Board of SHAPE. “Testing for cholesterol and other traditional risk factors is not sufficient. People need to know if and how much plaque (fat buildup in the arteries) is in their arteries. Screening for asymptomatic vascular disease beyond traditional risk factors is needed for accurate prediction of a near future heart attack.”

“Sudden heart attack is a killer that frequently strikes seemingly healthy people without warning. A screening protocol like the SHAPE Guideline can detect plaque buildup (the root cause of heart attack) in the arteries long before any symptoms occur,” said Dr. P.K. Shah, Professor of Medicine at UCLA, Chief of Cardiology at Cedars Sinai Medical Center and member of SHAPE’s Board of Directors. “Our solution to the challenge of heart attack prevention is through promotion of the concept of early detection of arterial plaque. This is a reliable means for identifying at-risk individuals who can be targeted for aggressive preventive interventions.”

“The standard use of risk factor-based screening can be bolstered by screening for and treating the ‘vulnerable patient,’ those individuals who are at very high risk of a near future heart attack,” said Dr. Matt Budoff professor of medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and a member of SHAPE’s Board of Directors. “We encourage those who are able to demonstrate your affection by protecting the heart of those you hold dear with a combination of the Framingham Risk Score and a CACS or CIMT scan.”

Coronary heart disease has remained the number one killer in the United States since 1902. In response SHAPE is calling for asymptomatic people especially those with a first degree family member who has suffered a sudden cardiac death, heart attack, stroke or peripheral arterial disease prior to the age of 55 in men, or women prior to the age of 65 to be concerned about their individual risk and of the risk of those dearest to their hearts. Modeled after successful cancer screening efforts, the SHAPE Guideline calls for men 45-75 years and women 55-75 years to undergo screening to assess coronary plaque or carotid wall thickness. It recommends the coronary calcium scan (CACS) or carotid scan (CIMT) – two tests that have proven to be strong predictors of those who are vulnerable to a heart attack or stroke. Preventive exams give healthcare appropriate action before fatal symptoms appear.

MEDIA CONTACT: Paul Galloway, Direct: 281-833-7603. Email: pg@shapesociety.org

The PolyPill approach to preventing heart attack and saving lives: New article supports population based therapy

Preventing chronic disease deaths: Targeting CVD will meet 75% of global goal

December 5, 2007 by Lisa Nainggolan

London, UK- Using a multidrug regimen to prevent cardiovascular disease in high-risk individuals in low- and middle-income countries could avert 18 million deaths over 10 years, Dr Stephen S Lim (University of Washington, Seattle) told a Lancet press conference in London yesterday. The move, which would involve just a moderate increase in health expenditure of slightly more than $1 per person per year, would meet three-quarters of the proposed global goal to reduce chronic disease death rates in a decade, proposed in 2005, Lim said. His paper on the health effects and costs of preventing cardiovascular disease in 23 chosen developing countries (list attached below) is published online in the Lancet today ^[1], along with four other papers on the burdens and costs of chronic disease ^[2], scaling up interventions for chronic disease prevention ^[3], the costs of such strategies ^[4], and a "call to action" ^[5]


Lancet editor Dr Richard Horton told the press conference: "There has been a failure by the scientific community to provide the information surrounding noncommunicable diseases. Now there is no excuse." This latest report on chronic disease "lays down the scientific foundations to build civil society and professional advocacy and so change global policy," he said. Lead author of the "call-to-action" paper, Dr Robert Beaglehole (University of Auckland, New Zealand), who was formerly with World Health Organization (WHO), said: "The science we have heard about this morning is groundbreaking. It shows without a doubt that we have the evidence to make a huge impact by preventing chronic diseases. We can do this. We can save millions of lives by 2015."

To read full article, click link

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Source: Nainggolan, Lisa . "Preventing chronic disease deaths: Targeting CVD will meet 75% of global goal ." Lancet 2007 . <http://www.theheart.org/article/831685.do>

Shape Symposium at AHA, November 3, 2007

Hello everyone,

The 2007 SHAPE Symposium is just around the corner and SHAPE would like to invite you to join us! It will be held in Orlando, Florida at the Rosen Plaza, Ballroom C from 7 to 9 PM. With registration, you are also automatically eligible to win an iPHONE. To register now and learn more about the objectives of the SHAPE Symposium, click the link below:

http://www.SHAPESOCIETY.ORG/symposiumaha07

Vulnerable patients are between a 'ROC and a hard place': Yes, it's time to screen for coronary artery disease

Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine,1 Dr. Michael Lauer argued for retaining the status quo and rejecting the recently proposed Screening for Heart Attack Prevention and Education (SHAPE) guidelines.2 As authors of the SHAPE guidelines, we would like to address his arguments.

■ SCREENING FOR DISEASE RATHER THAN RISK FACTORS

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is still the leading cause of death and morbidity in the United States and is achieving similar status in the rest of the world.3 Traditional strategies for primary prevention based on detecting risk factors are inadequate, because an individual patient’s risk factors may not tell us if disease is truly present or how severe it is.

The Association for Eradication of Heart Attack proposed the SHAPE guidelines on the basis of consensus among an international group of experts.2 After reviewing all available evidence, the group recommended that all asymptomatic men 45 to 75 years of age and women 55 to 75 years of age (except for those at very low risk) undergo noninvasive screening for subclinical atherosclerosis, with the goals of treatment to be determined by the amount of subclinical atherosclerosis detected, rather than by risk factors.

■ REBUTTING THE ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE SHAPE GUIDELINES

Dr. Lauer presents two main arguments against adopting the SHAPE guidelines: lack of evidence and conflicts of interest ...

To read full article, click here: www.ccjm.org/PDFFILES/Naghavi10_07.pdf

To read Dr. Lauer's article, click here: http://www.ccjm.org/PDFFILES/Lauer9_07.pdf