1. Absolute coronary artery calcium score is the best predictor of non-calcified plaque involvement in patients with low calcium scores (1-100)
- Author
-
Joonseok Kim, Michael J. Blaha, Lori M. Tam, Roger S. Blumenthal, Mouaz H. Al-Mallah, and Khurram Nasir
- Subjects
Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,endocrine system diseases ,Coronary Artery Disease ,Coronary Angiography ,Risk Factors ,Internal medicine ,Bayesian multivariate linear regression ,medicine ,Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ,Prevalence ,Humans ,In patient ,cardiovascular diseases ,Risk factor ,Aged ,Proportional Hazards Models ,Coronary artery calcium score ,business.industry ,nutritional and metabolic diseases ,Calcinosis ,Mean age ,Middle Aged ,Prognosis ,Low calcium ,Coronary Vessels ,Plaque, Atherosclerotic ,Coronary artery calcium ,Treatment Outcome ,Concomitant ,cardiovascular system ,Cardiology ,population characteristics ,Regression Analysis ,Calcium ,Female ,Radiology ,Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine ,business ,Tomography, X-Ray Computed - Abstract
Objective: We sought to identify the predictors of non-calcified plaque (NCP) burden in patients with low coronary artery calcium (CAC) scores of 1e100. Methods: We studied 920 consecutive patients clinically referred for coronary CT angiography (CCTA) with concomitant CAC scoring. The 276 patients with CAC 1e100 were divided into four groups based on the CAC score: CAC ¼ 0, 1e10, 11e50, and 51e100. Univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses were performed for the demographic, risk factor, and CAC score predictors of number of coronary segments with NCP. Results: Mean age was 55 � 11 years and 56% were women. Demographics and risk factors failed to identify NCP involvement in univariate models. The lone predictor of NCP burden was the absolute CAC score, which was persistently associated with NCP in multivariable models (CAC 51e100 vs. CAC 1e10, bcoefficient 0.35, p ¼ 0.03). Conclusions: Absolute CAC score is the lone robust predictor of NCP burden when CAC is 1e100. Risk within this mild coronary calcification group is likely heterogeneous, driven by the absolute CAC score. 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
- Published
- 2013