Significance of Coronary Artery Calcification in Medical Examination Lung Helical CT

Objective.Urate may have effects on vascular remodeling and atherosclerosis. We had shown an association between serum uric acid (SUA) and carotid atherosclerotic plaques. Inflammation and vascular remodeling in atherosclerosis promote coronary artery calcification (CAC), a preclinical marker for atherosclerosis. Here, we examined whether SUA is associated with CAC, using the same study sample and methods as for our previous carotid atherosclerosis study.Methods.The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Family Heart Study is a multicenter study designed to assess risk factors for heart disease. Participants were recruited from population-based cohorts in the US states of Massachusetts, North Carolina, Minnesota, Utah, and Alabama. CAC was assessed with helical computed tomography (CT). We conducted sex-specific and family-cluster analyses, as well as additional analyses among persons without risk factors related to both cardiovascular disease and hyperuricemia, adjusting for potential confounders as we had in the previous study of carotid atherosclerosis.Results.For the CAC study, 2412 subjects had both SUA and helical CT results available (55% women, age 58 ± 13 yrs, body mass index 27.6 ± 5.3). We found no association of SUA with CAC in men or women [OR in men: 1.0, 1.11, 0.86, 0.90; women: 1.0, 0.83, 1.00, 0.87 for increasing categories of SUA: < 5 (referent group), 5 to < 6, 6 to < 6.8, ≥ 6.8 mg/dl, respectively], nor in subgroup analyses.Conclusion.Replicating the methods used to demonstrate an association of SUA with carotid atherosclerosis did not reveal any association between SUA and CAC, suggesting that SUA likely does not contribute to atherosclerosis through effects on arterial calcification. The possibility that urate has divergent pathophysiologic effects on atherosclerosis and artery calcification merits further study.

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Coronary artery calcification in women with syndrome X: usefulness of double-helical CT for detection.

Radiology ◽

10.1148/radiology.205.3.9393523 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 205 (3) ◽

pp. 697-700 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

J Shemesh ◽

E Z Fisman ◽

A Tenenbaum ◽

S Apter ◽

L Leibovitch ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Coronary Artery ◽

Coronary Artery Calcification ◽

Helical Ct ◽

Syndrome X

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Aortic arch calcification is strongly associated with coronary artery calcification

VASA ◽

10.1024/0301-1526/a000415 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 44 (2) ◽

pp. 106-114 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Adem Adar ◽

Hakan Erkan ◽

Tayyar Gokdeniz ◽

Aysegul Karadeniz ◽

Ismail G. Cavusoglu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Coronary Artery ◽

High Risk ◽

Aortic Arch ◽

Chest Radiography ◽

Coronary Artery Calcification ◽

Independent Predictor ◽

Study Group ◽

Discriminative Performance ◽

Sensitivity Specificity ◽

Aortic Arch Calcification

Background: We aimed to investigate the association between aortic arch and coronary artery calcification (CAC). We postulated that low‐ and high‐risk CAC scores could be predicted with the evaluation of standard chest radiography for aortic arch calcification (AAC). Patients and methods: Consecutive patients who were referred for a multidetector computerized tomography (MDCT) examination were enrolled prospectively. All patients were scanned using a commercially available 64‐slice MDCT scanner for the evaluation of CAC score. A four‐point grading scale (0, 1, 2 and 3) was used to evaluate AAC on the standard posterior‐anterior chest radiography images. Results: The study group consisted of 248 patients. Median age of the study group was 52 (IQR: 10) years, and 165 (67 %) were male. AAC grades (r = 0.676, p < 0.0001) and age (r = 0.518, p < 0.0001) were significantly and positively correlated with CAC score. Presence of AAC was independently associated with the presence of CAC (OR: 11.20, 95 % CI 4.25 to 29.52). An AAC grade of ≥ 2 was the strongest independent predictor of a high‐risk CAC score (OR: 27.42, 95 % CI 6.09 to 123.52). Receiver operating characteristics curve analysis yielded a strong predictive ability of AAC grades for a CAC score of ≥ 100 (AUC = 0.892, P < 0.0001), and ≥ 400 (AUC = 0.894, P < 0.0001). Absence of AAC had a sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 90 %, 84 % and 89 %, respectively, for a CAC score of < 100. An AAC grade of ≥ 2 predicted a CAC score of ≥400 with a sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 68 %, 98 % and 95 %, respectively. Conclusions: AAC is a strong and independent predictor of CAC. The discriminative performance of AAC is high in detecting patients with low‐ and high‐risk CAC scores.

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