Circulating microRNA biomarkers for cardiovascular risk prediction: are we approaching clinical application?

Patients at high risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality are still difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the most widely used standard risk prediction models predict cardiovascular disease (CVD) rather poorly, since these risk calculators are mostly driven by age. Therefore, most young subjects are regarded as low risk merely based on their age, despite sometimes quite obvious adverse risk factors. Circulating biomarkers that can help to improve the identification of individuals at risk are therefore highly needed.