Combining multiple biomarkers for cardiovascular risk assessment: more is usually better – up to a point

“Improved risk assessment from multimarker testing is a worthy initial objective, but ultimately we must aspire to translate this into improved prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease.” It is no surprise that an ever increasing number of biomarkers are being examined in clinical studies of cardiovascular risk assessment. Current risk assessment algorithms, whether for primary or secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease, are imperfect: a large number of individuals who will ultimately develop cardiovascular disease are actually deemed ‘low risk’ based on popular risk scores [1], while even those who score at higher risk may never go on to develop disease....