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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

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Systematic review and meta-analysis on coronary calcifications in COVID-19

A Cereda1, L Allievi2, A Palmisano3,4

  • 1ASST Santi Paolo E Carlo, Milano, Italy. alberto.cereda@asst-santipaolocarlo.it.

Emergency Radiology
|May 2, 2022
PubMed

Insights

Coronary calcifications, detected via imaging, predict higher hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients. This finding suggests cardiovascular calcium is a significant prognostic biomarker even in non-cardiac illness like SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Area of Science:

  • Radiology
  • Cardiology
  • Infectious Diseases

Background:

  • Chest CT scans aid in diagnosing COVID-19 complications, but their prognostic value needs more research.
  • Non-pulmonary findings, like cardiovascular calcifications, may enhance the prediction of COVID-19 patient outcomes.
  • Existing studies on coronary calcifications as predictors of COVID-19 severity show mixed results.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To systematically review and meta-analyze evidence on the predictive role of cardiovascular calcifications in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Main Methods:

  • Systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.
  • Assessment of coronary calcifications (CAC) as a predictor of hospitalization, ventilatory support, and mortality in COVID-19 patients.

Main Results:

  • The meta-analysis confirmed the prognostic significance of coronary calcifications for hospital mortality (OR 2.19; 95% CI 1.36-3.52).
  • Coronary artery calcium (CAC) presence was not significantly associated with respiratory outcomes.
  • A trend towards increased cardiovascular events was observed in patients with CAC.

Conclusions:

  • Coronary calcium is a promising imaging biomarker for predicting short-term outcomes, including major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) and hospital mortality, in COVID-19 patients.
  • Further large-scale studies are necessary to validate these findings for this imaging biomarker in non-cardiovascular diseases like SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Keywords:
Biomarker imagingCACCAC-DRSCACSCOVID-19Cardiovascular calcificationsCoronary calcifications

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