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Published on: September 22, 2023
Walking performance is associated with coronary artery calcification in very old adults
Edis Rodrigues Júnior1, Ciro José Brito2, Aparecido Pimentel Ferreira1
1Gerontology Program, Catholic University of Brasilia, Brasília, DF, Brazil.
Insights
Walking speed predicts coronary artery calcification (CAC) scores in very old adults. This simple test can help assess cardiovascular risk when advanced imaging is unavailable, especially in low-income groups.
Area of Science:
- Geriatric Medicine
- Cardiovascular Health
- Diagnostic Imaging
Background:
- Coronary artery calcification (CAC) scores predict atherosclerosis-related outcomes in older adults.
- Limited availability of cardiac computed tomography hinders CAC assessment in clinical practice.
- Clinical signs associated with CAC can aid cardiovascular risk estimation, particularly in underserved populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine if clinical, biochemical, and functional measures can explain CAC scores in elderly individuals.
- To explore the association between anthropometric measures, walking speed, and handgrip strength with CAC scores in individuals aged 80 and above.
Main Methods:
- Characterized 89 non-institutionalized volunteers (≥ 80 years) with comprehensive biochemical, anthropometric, and CAC score evaluations.
- Assessed the association of CAC scores with walking speed (WS) and handgrip strength (HS) performance.
- Utilized analyses of variance, ANCOVA, and multinomial logistic regression to analyze data, adjusting for anthropometry.
Main Results:
- Body mass index and waist circumference differed significantly across CAC score quartiles.
- Individuals in lower CAC score quartiles demonstrated better walking speed performance (p≤0.04).
- Walking speed scores significantly explained CAC scores (R²=0.379, p=0.05), while handgrip strength did not show significant differences.
Conclusions:
- Walking speed is associated with and explains coronary artery calcification scores in very old individuals.
- Walking speed may serve as a valuable tool for stratifying atherosclerotic burden in apparently healthy elderly individuals, irrespective of body composition.
- This finding offers a practical approach to cardiovascular risk assessment in resource-limited settings.
Background:
Coronary artery calcification (CAC) scores have good predictive value for atherosclerosis-related outcomes in the geriatric population. The low availability of cardiac computed tomography is an obstacle to assess CAC in clinical practice. Thus, clinical signs with a good degree of association with CAC can help to estimate cardiovascular risk, particularly in low-income populations.
Objectives:
To assess whether clinical, biochemical and functional measures explain the CAC scores in older individuals.
Methods:
We characterized 89 non-institutionalized older volunteers (≥ 80 years old) by means of a comprehensive biochemical and anthropometric evaluation along with assessments of CAC scores determined by computerized tomography, and tested their association with walking speed test (WS) and handgrip strength (HS) performance.
Results:
Analyses of variance showed that body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) differed significantly (p ≤ 0.01 and p ≤ 0.03; respectively) across quartiles, so that subsequent tests were adjusted for anthropometry. ANCOVA revealed that the two lower quartiles of CAC had better performance in WS compared to the third and fourth quartiles (p ≤ 0.04). Multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that WS scores exhibit enough power (R2 = 0.379, p = 0.05) to explain CAC scores. There were no significant differences for HS between quartiles (p = 0.87).
Conclusion:
WS is associated and explain CAC scores, and may be useful to stratify atherosclerotic burden in apparently healthy very old individuals regardless of body composition.
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