Relative Estimate of Revised Cardiovascular Risk Combining Traditional and Non-traditional Image-based CV Markers: A...

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Medical Imaging
• Risk Stratification

Background:

• Traditional cardiovascular (CV) risk estimation methods can be enhanced by incorporating non-traditional image-based markers.
• This approach has not been previously validated in participants from Kerala.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between modified CV risk categories and traditional/non-traditional risk markers.
• To evaluate the correlation and reclassification improvement by combining atherosclerotic markers with intermediate and high-risk participants.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study of 594 participants from Ernakulum district, Kerala, utilizing ultrasound measurements.
• Carotid Intima-Media Thickness (cIMT) and plaque complexity were used to compute the carotid Total Plaque Risk Score (cTPRS).
• Statistical analysis included Multinomial Logistic Regression and decision tree algorithms for classification accuracy.

Main Results:

• Multinomial Logistic Regression identified cIMT, cTPRS, age, diabetes, Familial Hypercholesterolemia, hypertension treatment, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Chronic Kidney Disease as significant predictors (p<0.05).
• cIMT and plaque complexity were significant for 'Intermediate High', 'High', and 'Very High' risk categories.
• The overall model performance was 80.5%, with 78.7% accuracy using the decision tree algorithm.

Conclusions:

• Atherosclerotic markers demonstrate a significant correlation with cardiovascular risk.
• These markers are suitable for next-level reclassification of traditional CV risk in this population.