“…The reason for validating these scores to predict long-term events is that many of the risk factors included (diabetes mellitus, chronic renal insufficiency, contralateral carotid stenosis, atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure, and history of AMI) have been previously described as predictors of late cerebrovascular events, and have been associated to a lower long-term survival. 7,11,12,17,21 It is also interesting to use one single tool to stratify patients with high risk at short and long term, promoting measures of secondary cardiovascular prevention, which are more aggressive and personalized. To identify risk, subgroups are clinically relevant, because it has been demonstrated that patient awareness of their specific level of cardiovascular risk is a motivational factor for making lifestyle changes, and achieving a higher treatment compliance.…”