Cardiovascular risks: new insights from Framingham.

Although cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, its incidence has decreased steadily during the past 20 years. This trend is largely attributable to improved detection and management of cardiovascular risk factors. The pioneering work of the Framingham Heart Study, which has followed subjects since the late 1940s, has helped shed light on the risks conferred by factors such as advancing age, hypertension, smoking, elevated serum cholesterol, diabetes, left ventricular hypertrophy, and obesity. As a result of this ongoing investigation, clinicians have gained a better understanding of the ways in which cardiovascular risks can be modified so that mortality rates will hopefully continue to decline.