Complete Blood Count Risk Score Predict Life Expectancy

A simple blood test may predict who is at the highest risk to develop heart problems and how long these people may have to live.

The complete blood count (CBC) risk score is an inexpensive tool that uses all of the information in the common blood test, which includes laboratory data that is frequently underused.


Scientists at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute (Murray, UT, USA) collaborating with those at Brigham and Women's Hospital (Boston, MA, USA) used CBC laboratory testing information gathered as part of the Justification for the Use of Statins in Primary Prevention (JUPITER) Trial, a randomized clinical trial of a cholesterol-lowering drug.

The JUPITER study enrolled more than 17,000 individuals in 26 countries and followed them for up to five years. Participants in JUPITER had a clean slate free of cardiovascular disease normal low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, but elevated C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation associated with cardiovascular disease.

Individuals in the trial with a lower CBC risk score were very unlikely to die, while those with CBC risk scores in the middle of the range had more than 50% higher risk of death. People with the highest CBC risk scores were about twice as likely to die as those with low scores. The CBC risk score and its parent risk score, the Intermountain Risk Score, which is a combination of the CBC laboratory test and the basic metabolic profile blood test, were created to provide useful health information to allow physicians to easily compute the risk score while continuing to care for patients.

Benjamin Horne, PhD, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Center, said, “We now have a standardized way of assessing the risk of mortality for all individuals, not just ones with a history of heart diseases. One of the beauties of this score is it uses clinically familiar, standardized medical information already in electronic format. The financial cost is also almost zero because most patients already receive the CBC test. The clinical cost is also low, because of electronic medical records. Physicians receive this critical information about future risk, which adds to their knowledge about the patient, while it takes very little of their time or effort to obtain the information.” The study was presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, held November 16-20, 2013, in Dallas (TX, USA. 

Related Links:
Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute
Brigham and Women's Hospital