Multifocal cardiovascular calcification in patients with established cardiovascular disease; prevalence, risk factors, and relation with recurrent cardiovascular disease

Calcification of the ascending aorta, left heart valves and coronaries: associated diseases and a new classification

Aim: The topography of vascular and valvular calcification could help accurately predict cardiovascular post-operative complications. The data on these calcifications remains scarce. Purpose: Identify the topographic distribution of the ascending aortic, left heart valves and coronary calcifications. Materials & methods: We extracted 26 variables from 557 patients, hospitalized between 2017 and 2020. The topography of calcification was evaluated by thoracic CT scans. Both multivariate logistic regression and classification and regression tree (CART) were used for statistical analysis. Results: Several comorbidities were associated with vascular or valvular calcification. This study proposes a CART tree for patients according to their age, sex, Euroscore and lipid profile. Conclusion: The proposed classification could represent an important clinical tool. More studies are warranted to better prune the current CART algorithm.

Coronary Artery Calcification as a Marker for Coronary Artery Stenosis: Comparing Kidney Failure to the General Population

Rationale & Objective

The presence of calcified plaques in the coronary arteries is associated with cardiovascular mortality and is a hallmark of chronic kidney failure, but it is unclear whether this is associated with the same degree of coronary artery stenosis as in patients without kidney disease. We compared the relationship of coronary artery calcification (CAC) and stenosis between dialysis patients and patients without chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Study Design

Observational cohort study.

Setting & Participants

127 dialysis patients and 447 patients without CKD with cardiovascular risk factors underwent cardiac computed tomography (CT), consisting of non–contrast-enhanced CT and CT angiography. CAC score and degree of coronary artery stenosis were assessed by independent readers.

Predictor

Dialysis treatment.

Outcome

Association between calcification and stenosis.

Analytical Approach

Logistic regression to determine the association between CAC score and the presence of stenosis in a matched cohort and, in the full cohort, testing for the interaction of dialysis status with this relationship.

Results

112 patients were matched from each cohort, totaling 224 patients, using propensity scores for dialysis, balancing numerous cardiovascular risk factors. Median CAC score was 210 (IQR, 19-859) in dialysis patients and 58 (IQR, 0-254) in patients without CKD; 35% of dialysis patients and 36% of patients without CKD had coronary artery stenosis ≥ 50%. Per each 100-unit higher CAC score, the matched dialysis cohort had significantly lower ORs for stenosis than the non-CKD cohort, 0.67 (95% CI, 0.52-0.83) for stenosis ≥ 50% and 0.75 (95% CI, 0.62-0.90) for stenosis ≥ 70%.

Limitations

No comparison with the gold standard fractional flow reserve.

Conclusions

Dialysis patients have higher risk for coronary artery stenosis with higher CAC scores, but this risk is comparatively lower than in patients without CKD with similar CAC scores. In dialysis patients, a high CAC score can easily be found without significant stenosis. Our data enable “translation” of degree of calcification to the probability of coronary stenosis in dialysis patients.

Added value of cardiovascular calcifications for prediction of recurrent cardiovascular events and cardiovascular interventions in patients with established cardiovascular disease

The purpose is to investigate the added prognostic value of coronary artery calcium (CAC), thoracic aortic calcium (TAC), and heart valve calcium scores for prediction of a combined endpoint of recurrent major cardiovascular events and cardiovascular interventions (MACE +) in patients with established cardiovascular disease (CVD). In total, 567 patients with established CVD enrolled in a substudy of the UCC-SMART cohort, entailing cardiovascular CT imaging and calcium scoring, were studied. Five Cox proportional hazards models for prediction of 4-year risk of MACE + were developed; traditional CVD risk predictors only (model I), with addition of CAC (model II), TAC (model III), heart valve calcium (model IV), and all calcium scores (model V). Bootstrapping was performed to account for optimism. During a median follow-up of 3.43 years (IQR 2.28–4.74) 77 events occurred (MACE+). Calibration of predicted versus observed 4-year risk for model I without calcium scores was good, and the c-statistic was 0.65 (95%CI 0.59–0.72). Calibration for models II–V was similar to model I, and c-statistics were 0.67, 0.65, 0.65, and 0.68 for model II, III, IV, and V, respectively. NRIs showed improvement in risk classification by model II (NRI 15.24% (95%CI 0.59–29.39)) and model V (NRI 20.00% (95%CI 5.59–34.92)), but no improvement for models III and IV. In patients with established CVD, addition of the CAC score improved performance of a risk prediction model with classical risk factors for the prediction of the combined endpoint MACE+ . Addition of the TAC or heart valve score did not improve risk predictions.