Introduction:
Diseases presenting with cardiac and vascular calcification are well known and a variety of diagnostic modalities enable detection of calcifications. However, the relationship between calcification of arteries and the aortic valve together with corresponding pathophysiological processes have not been yet unequivocally elucidated.
Purposes of the study:
An assessment of correlation between presence and severity of calcifications in the aortic valve, coronary arteries, aorta and influence of cardiovascular disease risk factors on prevalence of calcifications in this locations.
Material and Methods:
The study included consecutive patients over 60 years of age referred for computed tomography imaging of coronary artery disease. A total number of included patients reached 500 subjects. Besides coronary artery calcification (CAC), we evaluated aortic valve calcification (AVC) and ascending aorta calcification (AAC). Computed tomography examinations were performed with a dual-source, 64-slice scanner. Exclusion criteria encompassed: diagnosed aortic valve disease, history of coronary artery angioplasty, bypass grafting or heart valve surgery.
Results:
AVC was diagnosed in 163 patients (32.6%). Prevalence of CAC and AAC was higher than AVC and amounted to 78.8% and 59.8%, respectively. Aortic valve calcification was more often observed in men than women. Degree of AVC severity was significantly lesser than that of CAC and AAC (p=0.0001, p=0.0001). In our study population, we did not find a significant dependence between presence and severity of AVC and CAC or AAC. However, we did observe a statistically significant relationship between presence and severity of CAC and AAC. In contrast to coronary arteries and the aorta, we did not find significantly increased prevalence of AVC among patients with arterial hypertension, dyslipidemias, diabetes, smokers or patients with elevated BMI. Only sex and age exerted significant influence on development of AVC.
Conclusions:
Despite some similarities between the process of aortic valve calcification and that involving coronary arteries and aorta, these phenomena are not interrelated. It seems that process of calcification of the aortic valve is significantly different from atherosclerosis.
QUANTIFYING AORTIC VALVE CALCIFICATION FROM A CONTRAST-ENHANCED CARDIAC COMPUTED-TOMOGRAPHY ANGIOGRAPHY STUDY
