RESEARCH ARTICLE
Coronary Artery Calcium Scores: Current Thinking and Clinical Applications
Anil George, Assad Movahed*
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2008Volume: 2
First Page: 87
Last Page: 92
Publisher ID: TOCMJ-2-87
DOI: 10.2174/1874192400802010087
Article History:
Received Date: 18/8/2008Revision Received Date: 28/8/2008
Acceptance Date: 2/9/2008
Electronic publication date: 18/9/2008
Collection year: 2008
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http: //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Most incident coronary disease occurs in previously asymptomatic individuals who were considered to be at a lower risk by traditional screening methods. There is a definite advantage if these individuals could be reclassified into a higher risk category, thereby impacting disease outcomes favorably. Coronary artery calcium scores have been recognized as an independent marker for adverse prognosis in coronary disease. Multiple population based studies have acknowledged the shortcomings of risk prediction models such as the Framingham risk score or the Procam score. The science behind coronary calcium is discussed briefly followed by a review of current thinking on calcium scores. An attempt has been made to summarize the appropriate indications and use of calcium scores.
