Objectives:
The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of coronary calcification
among moderate- to high-risk Chinese patients and to evaluate the ability of the
coronary calcium score determined by electron beam computed tomography (EBCT) to
predict angiographic coronary artery disease in this population.
Methods: We
enrolled 163 consecutive patients and analyzed their cardiovascular risk
factors, coronary calcium scores and coronary angiogram results.
Results: One
hundred and twenty-five patients (76.7%) had a positive EBCT scan result
(coronary calcium score >0). The prevalence of calcification and the calcium
scores showed a graded relation to the number of cardiovascular risk factors and
age (p < 0.001 for trend).
Coronary calcium scores showed
statistically significant differences between patients with angiographic
evidence of coronary artery disease and patients with normal coronary
angiography (p < 0.05), but could not
differentiate between patients with significant and insignificant coronary
artery disease.
Receiver operating characteristic
curve analysis showed that a coronary calcium score >5 predicted angiographic
coronary artery disease with 93% sensitivity and 86% specificity (area under the
curve 0.95 +/- 0.019). Multivariate
analysis showed a coronary calcium score >5 to be the strongest independent
predictor of angiographic coronary artery disease (odds ratio 120 .7, 95%
confidence interval 21.7-671.4; p < 0.001).
Conclusion:
Coronary
calcium score determined by EBCT appears to have a similar predictive value in
Chinese patients as it does in other ethnic populations that have been reported
to date.
