title: Coronary Artery Calcification.
abstract: Coronary artery calcification (CAC) is an established marker of subclinical atherosclerosis and an independent predictor of future coronary heart disease in the asymptomatic primary prevention population, particularly in the intermediate risk cohort. CAC also helps in reclassifying those patients and their risk of cardiovascular events into higher or lower risk categories. MESA (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis) is a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-sponsored population-based medical research study involving 6,814 men and women from 6 U.S. communities without a medical history of clinical cardiovascular disease. The evidence from this population cohort revealed that CAC scoring was independently predictive and highly effective at risk stratification of major adverse cardiac events. This review provides available data based on MESA. We focus on the utility of CAC for cardiovascular disease risk stratification of individuals, and we describe its diagnostic value in identifying patients at risk.
authors.affiliation: Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Osawa
authors.affiliation: Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Rine
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nakanishi
authors.affiliation: Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Electronic address: mbudoff@labiomed.org.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Budoff
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014481:United States; D061205:Vascular Calcification / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology