A Randomized Comparison of Stage-Based Care Versus Risk Factor-Based Care for Prevention of Cardiovascular Events

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) persists as the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide at high societal cost. The current primary CVD prevention strategy relies upon risk stratification using population health markers such as age, sex, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia and tobacco use, with preventive therapy intensified in higher risk strata. Since these risk factors are indirect surrogate markers of the underlying disease, atherosclerosis, this strategy leads to treatment of individuals with risk factors who do not have atherosclerosis and failure to treat those with significant atherosclerosis who lack risk factors. The current strategy also cannot determine which individuals are inadequately treated despite effective risk factor management (residual risk). With the current approach, the CV death rate is trending upward in the US despite evidence that screening asymptomatic patients reduces CV events and the widespread availability of effective preventive therapies. This randomized, controlled, pragmatic trial is designed to address the unmet need for better strategies to identify asymptomatic individuals at increased risk for CV events due to atherosclerosis and to personalize their treatment based on CV risk estimates using coronary artery disease (CAD) visualization and quantification. This study enrolls patients without known symptoms of ASCVD but who are at increased risk for ASCVD due to their age and having diabetes, prediabetes or metabolic syndrome and tests the hypothesis that a CAD Staging System-based care strategy reduces CV events compared with risk factor-based care. The Cleerly CAD Staging System incorporates imaging-based evaluation for coronary atherosclerosis, algorithm-supported pharmacotherapy and personalized education about their CAD.