The role of fluoroscopically detected coronary calcium in predicting the presence of significant coronary lesions

Abstract

Context: Coronary artery disease (CAD) accounts for over 16' of deaths worldwide.[1] As part of its diagnosis and stratification of severity in a patient, a noninvasive modality would certainly be useful to triage CAD. Aims: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of fluoroscopically detected coronary artery calcification (CAC) as a tool to grade coronary stenosis. Settings and Design: Comparing severity of fluoroscopic CAC with a severity of CAD by coronary angiograms (CAGs) in a high-volume center. Subjects and Methods: Fluoroscopic presence of CAC was graded using the Yamanaka method and correlated with CAGs in 200 patients. Statistical Analysis Used: Sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, accuracy, Chi-squared tests for significance. Results: The overall prevalence of CAC was 43' varying with age, sex, and CAD severity. The most common location of CAC was the left anterior descending artery followed by right coronary artery. Fluoroscopic CAC had 94' specificity and 96.5' positive predictive value for significant stenosis, albeit lower sensitivity of 55.3'. While 63' of those patients with single-vessel CAC had multivessel CAD, 91' of those with multivessel CAC had multivessel CAD. CAC was detected as follows: 6' in minor CAD, 40' in single-vessel disease (VD), 64' in two- or three-VD, and 100' in those with four-VD (P = 0.001). CAC was seen in 69.6' of patients having chronic total occlusions (CTOs) while in only 32.6' without CTOs (P = 0.001). Conclusions: A strong relation is present between CAC and severity of CAD. CAC is not a good screening tool for CAD due to low sensitivity. Notably, multivessel CAC strongly predicts multivessel CAD.