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Identifying Coronary Artery Calcification on Non-gated Computed Tomography Scans
04:40

Identifying Coronary Artery Calcification on Non-gated Computed Tomography Scans

Published on: August 28, 2018

Predictive value of coronary calcifications for future cardiac events in asymptomatic individuals

Alexander Becker1, Alexander Leber, Christoph Becker

  • 1Department of Cardiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany. alexander.becker@med.uni-muenchen.de

American Heart Journal
|December 18, 2007
PubMed

Insights

Coronary calcifications, measured by the Agatston score, effectively predict future cardiac death and myocardial infarction in asymptomatic individuals. Absence of calcifications indicates a low risk for cardiovascular events.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiology
  • Preventive Medicine
  • Medical Imaging

Background:

  • Coronary artery disease (CAD) prevention requires accurate risk stratification.
  • Prospective studies are essential for evaluating predictive markers of cardiovascular events.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the predictive value of coronary calcifications for future cardiovascular events in asymptomatic individuals.
  • To assess the utility of the Agatston score in risk stratification for CAD.

Main Methods:

  • 1726 asymptomatic individuals underwent electron beam computed tomography (EBCT) for coronary calcification assessment.
  • The Agatston score was calculated for each participant.
  • Cardiac death (CD) and myocardial infarction (MI) rates were tracked over a mean follow-up of 40.3 months.

Main Results:

  • Patients experiencing CD or MI had significantly higher Agatston scores compared to those without events (458 +/- 228 vs 206 +/- 201, P < .01).
  • An Agatston score above the 75th percentile correlated with higher annualized event rates for MI (3.6% vs 1.6%, P < .05) and CD (2.2% vs 0.9%).
  • No cardiac events occurred in individuals with no detectable coronary calcifications.

Conclusions:

  • Coronary calcifications, assessed via Agatston score, identify asymptomatic individuals at risk for future MI and CD, irrespective of other risk factors.
  • The absence of coronary calcifications can reliably exclude future cardiovascular events in asymptomatic populations.
Abstract

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