title: Relationship between Calcium Score and Myocardial Scintigraphy in the Diagnosis of Coronary Disease.
abstract: Half the patients with coronary artery disease present with sudden death - or acute infarction as first symptom, making early diagnosis pivotal. Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy is frequently used in the assessment of these patients, but it does not detect the disease without flow restriction, exposes the patient to high levels of radiation and is costly. On the other hand, with less radiological exposure, calcium score is directly correlated to the presence and extension of coronary atherosclerosis, and also to the risk of cardiovascular events. Even though calcium score is a tried-and-true method for stratification of asymptomatic patients, its use is still reduced in this context, since current guidelines are contradictory to its use on symptomatic diseases. The aim of this review is to identify, on patients under investigation for coronary artery disease, the main evidence of the use of calcium score associated with functional evaluation and scintigraphy.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências Cardiovasculares, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fabio Paiva Rossini
authors.initials: FP
authors.lastname: Siqueira
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências Cardiovasculares, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Claudio Tinoco
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Mesquita
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Radiologia, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil.
authors.forename: Alair Augusto Sarmet M Damas Dos
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências Cardiovasculares, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Marcelo Souto
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Nacif
mesh_terms: D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D055414:Myocardial Perfusion Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D011379:Prognosis; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*; D061205:Vascular Calcification / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*