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Coronary Calcium: New Insights, Recent Data, and Clinical Role

  • Cardiac PET, CT, and MRI (S Achenbach, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Cardiology Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Calcium artery calcium (CAC) scoring has become an integral part in the era of preventive cardiology, it has been extensively studied and been validated as a powerful tool for cardiovascular risk assessment in conjunction with other traditional well established scoring systems such as Framingham risk score. In addition, CAC testing has found its way into emergency department algorithms assessing low to intermediate risk patients presenting with chest pain, this strategy was recently adopted by the UK NICE guidelines, confidently ruling out cardiac origin of chest pain. Several studies have demonstrated that risk assessment using CAC was motivational to patients leading to better adherence to their preventive practices as well as to medications. Accordingly, this test has several recommendations for use by national and international guidelines.

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Abbreviations

CAC:

Coronary artery calcium

CAD:

Coronary artery disease

CCTA:

Coronary CT angiography

CHD:

Coronary heart disease

CVD:

Cardiovascular disease

CVS:

Calcium volume score

EBCT:

Electron beam computed tomography

ED:

Emergency department

FRS:

Framingham risk score

MDCT:

Multidetector CT

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No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, 1124 West Carson St, Torrance, CA, 90502, USA

    George Youssef, Nove Kalia, Sirous Darabian & Matthew J. Budoff

Authors
  1. George Youssef
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  2. Nove Kalia
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  3. Sirous Darabian
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  4. Matthew J. Budoff
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthew J. Budoff.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Cardiac PET, CT, and MRI

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Youssef, G., Kalia, N., Darabian, S. et al. Coronary Calcium: New Insights, Recent Data, and Clinical Role. Curr Cardiol Rep 15, 325 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-012-0325-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-012-0325-3

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