TY - JOUR
T1 - CT coronary calcification
T2 - What does a score of "0" Mean?
AU - Gottlieb, Ilan
AU - Sara, Leonardo
AU - Brinker, Jeff A.
AU - Lima, João A.C.
AU - Rochitte, Carlos Eduardo
N1 - Funding Information:
Disclosure Conflicts of interest: I. Gottlieb: none; L. Sara: none; J.A. Brinker: none; J.A.C. Lima: receives grant support from the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD), the D.W. Reynolds Foundation, and Toshiba Medical Systems (Otawara, Japan); C.E. Rochitte: none.
PY - 2011/2
Y1 - 2011/2
N2 - Calcium score (CS) is a useful tool in evaluating the risk of cardiovascular events in asymptomatic patients. The absence of detectable calcification determines excellent cardiovascular prognosis, with event rates lower than that of negative stress studies, probably due to the latter's inability to detect nonobstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). There are few primary prevention medications that would be cost-effective in such a low-risk patient population. The interval for retesting patients with zero CS is still open for debate but it should not be in less than 4 to 5 years. CS should not be used to rule out obstructive CAD in symptomatic patients, as its correlation with coronary stenosis is poor and obstructive CAD is commonly found among symptomatic zero CS patients. Most studies have found very low specificity values for CS to detect obstructive CAD in symptomatic patients, meaning it has limited ability to detect the true negative cases (ie, zero CS without obstructive CAD).
AB - Calcium score (CS) is a useful tool in evaluating the risk of cardiovascular events in asymptomatic patients. The absence of detectable calcification determines excellent cardiovascular prognosis, with event rates lower than that of negative stress studies, probably due to the latter's inability to detect nonobstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). There are few primary prevention medications that would be cost-effective in such a low-risk patient population. The interval for retesting patients with zero CS is still open for debate but it should not be in less than 4 to 5 years. CS should not be used to rule out obstructive CAD in symptomatic patients, as its correlation with coronary stenosis is poor and obstructive CAD is commonly found among symptomatic zero CS patients. Most studies have found very low specificity values for CS to detect obstructive CAD in symptomatic patients, meaning it has limited ability to detect the true negative cases (ie, zero CS without obstructive CAD).
KW - Calcification
KW - Calcium score
KW - Cardiovascular risk
KW - Coronary artery disease
KW - Zero calcium score
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U2 - 10.1007/s11886-010-0151-4
DO - 10.1007/s11886-010-0151-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 21063812
AN - SCOPUS:79551643089
SN - 1523-3782
VL - 13
SP - 49
EP - 56
JO - Current Cardiology Reports
JF - Current Cardiology Reports
IS - 1
ER -