Although many traditional cardiovascular risk factors have been well identified [1], it remains difficult to predict who will develop an atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and who will not. The current guideline-based approach, using risk charts able to identify the risks at population level [2], is not patient-specific enough. Therefore, the development of clinical prediction models and the search of new biomarkers and risk modifiers can help to personalize cardiovascular risk management, which is essential as we move towards the era of precision medicine.

This is particularly true in women, in whom ASCVD remains the leading cause of mortality, responsible for a third of all deaths worldwide. Besides, over the last few decades, while mortality rates in men have steadily declined, those in women remained stable, particularly among young adults [3]. We have come a long way dispelling the conventional myth that women are “immune” from ASCVD. Historically, medical research has focused on male patients and subsequently, until recent years, there has been decreased awareness of the burden of ASCVD in females, also underrepresented in clinical trials. The biological, cultural, behavioral, psychosocial, and socioeconomic differences between sexes contribute, to various degrees, to gender differences in ASCVD risk fac-