Coronary artery calcium progression: an important clinical measurement? A review of published reports.
Baseline CAC accurately identifies coronary atherosclerosis and improves prediction of future cardiac events. However, whether knowledge of progression of CAC scores over time further improves risk prediction is unclear. We conducted a comprehensive review of published reports on CAC progression and found that CAC progression correlates with worsening atherosclerosis and may facilitate prediction of future cardiac events. These findings support the notion that slowing CAC progression with therapeutic interventions might provide prognostic benefit. However, despite promising early data, such interventions (most notably with statin therapy) have not been shown to slow the progression of CAC in any randomized controlled trial to date, outside of post hoc subgroup analyses. Thus, routine quantification of CAC progression cannot currently be recommended in clinical practice.
- Journal: Journal of the American College of Cardiology
- Year: 2010
- Topic: Cardiac CT, Cholesterol / Lipids / Statins, Cardiovascular Risk Assessment
- Read more articles by: Roger S. Blumenthal, MD, Michael Blaha, MD, MPH, Khurram Nasir, MD, MPH, J. Bill McEvoy, MB BCh, MHS, Steven Jones, MD
