The relationship of socioeconomic status with coronary artery calcification and pericardial fat.
BACKGROUND
Little data currently exist supporting the correlation of socioeconomic status (SES) to markers of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis.


OBJECTIVE
The main aim was to investigate the relationship of SES measured by economic status and educational level with coronary artery calcification (CAC) and pericardial fat volume (PFV) assessed by multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT).


METHODS
A total of 220 consecutive patients with suspected coronary artery disease, who underwent 64-slice MDCT angiography for assessment of coronary atherosclerosis, were recruited between January 2014 and March 2015. Of these, 186 patients were enrolled in this cross sectional study.


RESULTS
Low economic status patients showed higher PFV values; median (inter-quartile range [IQR] was 94 [50-140] cm3, p = 0.00001 and r = 0.37, compared to patients with high economic status, and this association persisted even after multiple logistic regression to conventional cardiac risk factors (p = 0.004, CI 7.3-30.4), while patients with low economic status reported a higher calcium score (but statistically non significant) (p = 0.12) compared to high economic status patients. Pa-tients with no formal education showed higher PFV (median [IQR] was 93 [48-140] cm3, p = 0.01) compared to patients with bachelor's degree (median [IQR] was 56 [28-92] cm3), but this association was attenuated after further adjustment for conventional cardiac risk factors (p = 0.1, CI -9.52-10.88), while CAC showed no significant correlation with educational level (p = 0.2, r = 0.117).


CONCLUSIONS
Socioeconomic status, particularly economic status measure, reported a significant inverse relationship with PFV independent of conventional cardiac risk factors.
University of Kufa, Najaf, Iraq. husseinaf.alnaffakh@uokufa.edu.iq.
Hussein
H
Nafakhi
Abdulameer
A
Almosawi
Hasan
H
Alnafakh
Widad
W
Mousa
D000273:Adipose Tissue; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000473:pathology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007493:Iraq / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010496:Pericardium; D012307:Risk Factors; D012923:Social Class; D061205:Vascular Calcification / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology*
atherosclerosis; calcification; coronary artery; multi-detector computed tomography; pericardial fat; socioeconomic status