If you already have heart disease, then a coronary risk profile can help measure your risk of having one of the following conditions in the next 10 years.

Risk can never be a firm measurement, and future disease cannot be either predicted or definitively ruled out, but knowledge of risk potential and appropriate preventive measures can be helpful to both patients and physicians.

The coronary risk profile is based on data from the Framingham Heart Disease Epidemiology Study, which revealed certain controllable and uncontrollable risk factors for heart disease. Uncontrollable risk factors include:

• Race
• Advanced age
• Family history of heart disease

Controllable risk factors include:

• Smoking
• Lack of exercise
• Eating an unhealthy diet
• Unhealthy cholesterol ratio
• Obesity
• Poorly controlled high blood pressure or diabetes

Points are assigned to any risk factors you may have, and the total of your points indicates your statistical likelihood of having angina, heart attack or heart-related death in the next 10 years.

To calculate your own coronary risk profile, you will need to know your levels of HDL (“good”) cholesterol, LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and triglycerides. This information can be obtained from the results of a blood fat profile, which is a type of blood test. You will also need to know your height and weight.