Assessing fatal cardiovascular disease risk with the SCORE (Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation) scale in post-menopausal women 10 years after different hormone treatment regimens

Objective.To assess fatal cardiovascular disease (FCD) risk among women in early post-menopausal years, as evaluated with the Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE) scale. Design.This was a retrospective study of parallel cohorts. Two hundred seventy-three healthy post-menopausal women. Participants received one of the following hormone treatment (HT) regimens: transdermal estradiol (50μg) (n=99), sequential cyclic HT with transdermal estradiol (50μg/day) plus 200mg/day natural micronised oral progesterone (cycle days 1225) (n=63) and combined HT using transdermal estradiol (50μg) plus 100mg/day of micronised oral progesterone (n=61). A group of women who elected not to use HT served as control group (n=50). SCORE values were assessed before HT or follow up. Results.Only one woman displayed a high-risk SCORE value both before and after 10 years of HT, the remaining had low risk values (<5) for FCD. After 10 years, SCORE values increased significantly as compared to baseline among HT users (all three regimens) and controls. Although post-treatment SCORE values significantly differed among groups, values were all below the high risk cut-off (5). There were no FCD events during the 10 year observation period. Conclusion.As assessed with the SCORE scale, FCD risk in young post-menopausal women (HT users and controls) had a slight significant increase after 10 years, being values in the low risk range.