Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Budoff, Matthew J
• Lane, Kathleen L
• Bakhsheshi, Hamid
• Mao, Songshou
• Grassmann, Bryan O
• Friedman, Bruce C
• Brundage, Bruce H

Titel

Rates of progression of coronary calcium by electron beam tomography

Ist Teil von

• The American journal of cardiology, 2000-07, Vol.86 (1), p.8-11

Ort / Verlag

New York, NY: Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2000

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Elsevier ScienceDirect Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• In this study, we sought to determine the rate of progression of atherosclerosis using coronary calcium scores derived from electron beam tomography (EBT). We studied a variety of disease states (hypertension, high cholesterol, tobacco use, diabetes mellitus) followed for 1 to 6.5 years. We evaluated 299 asymptomatic persons (227 men and 72 women) who underwent 2 consecutive EBT scans at least 12 months apart. The average change in the calcium score (Agatston method) for the entire group was 33.2 ± 9.2%/year. The treated group (receiving statins) demonstrated an average increase in calcium scores of 15 ± 8%/year compared with 39 ± 12%/year for untreated patients (p <0.001). Among the 60 patients on statin monotherapy, 37% had a decrease in the calcium score from baseline to follow-up scan. The relative increase in calcium scores did not vary significantly by gender or risk factors, with the exception of statin-treated hypercholesterolemic subjects. Scores of zero on the initial scan portend a low likelihood of significant calcific deposits on repeat scanning. Only 2 of 81 participants (2%) with scores of zero at baseline had scores >10 on repeat study. In this study, statin therapy induced a 61% reduction in the rate of coronary calcium progression. This study demonstrates that EBT may be a useful tool in assessing efficacy of different interventions to retard progression of atherosclerosis, noninvasively, over relatively short time periods.