Cardiovascular disease prevention.

Cardiovascular diseases remain the first killer in the Western countries. Equivalent contributions of prevention initiatives, pharmaceutical developments and technological improvements have led to an important success in the reduction of mortality related to cardiovascular diseases in some of the countries of the Western world. However, increase in life expectance, incomplete adherence to guidelines, difficulties in convincing governments and the population to support and adhere to prevention measures make that the burden of cardiovascular diseases is still extremely high. This review gives a restricted summary of the most important prevention guidelines supported by the European Society of Cardiology. It also illustrates the still very incomplete adherence to these guidelines in the different European countries as published in the EUROASPIRE surveys.