he transitions that took place during the second half of the 20th century produced an increase in the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and demographic changes have brought the focus to older people. The necessity to improve the control of cardiovascular diseases and the unsatisfactory performance of available therapeutic approaches moved some of the attention to cardiovascular risk factors. Among them, one of the most outstanding is diabetes which many consider to be a cardiovascular disease equivalent. It became evident that cardiovascular risk factors act jointly, and the way to tackle them must follow a global strategy. At the end of the last century several cardiovascular risk factor tables were produced with the focus being on middle-age people, who formed the main database for studies in cardiovascular disease. However, an increasing proportion of patients are older and in this group current approaches to cardiovascular risk estimation may not be the most suitable.
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