Relationship of volumetric bone mineral density by quantitative computed tomography with abdominal aortic
1Medical Research & Biometrics Center, State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Objective:
This multicenter study aimed to evaluate the association between volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) and abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) in a Chinese population.
Methods:
Quantitative computed tomography (QCT) and Agatston score (AS) were used to measure vBMD and AAC, respectively, in 3457 participants during 2013-2017. The association between vBMD and AAC was assessed using multivariate regression analysis, adjusted for age, residence, education, body mass index, and other cardiovascular risk factors.
Results:
The mean age of women and men was 61.4 and 62.7 years, respectively. In total, 30.4% of women and 37.7% of men were found to have AAC. After full adjustment, higher vBMD was associated with lower AAC score (β, -0.095; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.167 to -0.024; P = 0.0087) and lower AAC prevalence (odds ratio [OR], 0.873; 95% CI, 0.824 to 0.924; P < 0.0001) in men. Inverse trends were also observed in the association of vBMD quartile with AAC severity (lowest vs highest quartile; β = 0.235; 95% CI, 0.011 to 0.459; Ptrend < 0.0001) and AAC prevalence (lowest vs highest quartile; OR = 1.329; 95% CI, 1.087 to 1.625; Ptrend < 0.0001) in men. However, no significant result was obtained in women, except for the association between quartiles of vBMD and AAC score.
Conclusions:
In our study, vBMD was inversely associated with AAC among men independent of age and shared risk factors. However, the association was not significant among women.
