Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a global epidemic representing the leading cause of death in some Western countries. According to the American Heart Association, a total of 92.1 million US citizens currently have ≥1 forms of CVD, with numbers expected to grow reaching up to 43.9% of the US population by 2030. In 2013, 17.3 million people (≈31% of all deaths) died due to CVD, and the number is expected to rise to at least 23.6 million in the next 15 years and cause an estimated economic burden of 1.0 trillion US dollars by 2030.