Atherosclerosis calcium

BACKGROUND: Arterial remodeling is a compensatory mechanism of the vessel wall in response to atherosclerotic plaque growth. However, the clinical significance of vascular remodeling of carotid lesions remains unclear. Through this study, we aimed to evaluate the association between vascular remodeling and ischemic symptoms in patients with an internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis degree ≥50%, considering the differences in plaque calcification patterns. METHODS: This retrospective cross-sectional study included adult patients with moderate-to-severe proximal ICA stenosis associated with atherosclerotic plaques admitted to the Zhejiang Hospital between September 2018 and March 2023...

Currently, cardiovascular risk stratification to guide preventive therapy relies on clinical scores based on cardiovascular risk factors. However, the discriminative power of these scores is relatively modest. The use of coronary artery calcium score (CACS) and coronary CT angiography (CCTA) has surfaced as methods for enhancing the estimation of risk and potentially providing insights for personalized treatment in individual patients. CACS improves overall cardiovascular risk prediction and may be used to improve the yield of statin therapy in primary prevention, and possibly identify patients with a favorable risk/benefit relationship for antiplatelet therapies...

BACKGROUND: Direct coronary arterial evaluation via computed tomography (CT) angiography is the most accurate noninvasive test for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD). However, diagnostic accuracy is limited in the setting of severe coronary calcification or stents. Ultra-high-resolution CT (UHR-CT) may overcome this limitation, but no rigorous study has tested this hypothesis. METHODS: The CORE-PRECISION is an international, multicenter, prospective diagnostic accuracy study testing the non-inferiority of UHR-CT compared to invasive coronary angiography (ICA) for identifying patients with hemodynamically significant CAD...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: High coronary artery calcification (CAC) burden is a significant risk factor for adverse cardiovascular and kidney outcomes. However, it is unknown whether changes in the coronary atherosclerotic burden can accompany changes in kidney disease progression. Here, we evaluated the relationship between CAC progression and the risk of kidney failure with replacement therapy (KFRT). METHODS: We analyzed 1173 participants with chronic kidney disease (CKD) G1 to G5 without kidney replacement therapy from the KoreaN Cohort Study for Outcomes in Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease (KNOW-CKD)...

OBJECTIVE: Aim: To prove an independence of CAC score comparatively to conventional risk factors such as age, and dyslipidemia especially in patients under forty years of age. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and Methods: Thirty-four asymptomatic adult patients with no prior established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus or severe comorbidities, except of complex clinical examination, underwent CT scan with evaluation of coronary artery calcium score...

OBJECTIVE: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) stratifies cardiovascular risk in asymptomatic patients with subclinical atherosclerosis. The aim of this study was to determine the ability of MCTD and clinical and laboratory parameters to assess subclinical CVD progression in HIV patients. METHODS: Prospective longitudinal cohort study of patients with at least 10 years of HIV infection and 5 years of antiretroviral therapy history, low cardiovascular risk and monitored for 6 years (2015-2021)...

BACKGROUND: Vascular calcification refers to the abnormal accumulation of calcium in the walls of blood vessels and is a risk factor often overlooked in cardiovascular disease. However, there is currently no specific drug for treating vascular calcification. Compound Danshen Dripping Pill (CDDP) is widely used to treat cardiovascular diseases, but its effect on vascular calcification has not been reported. PURPOSE: We investigated the effects of CDDP on vascular calcification in ApoE-/- mice and in vitro and elucidated its mechanism of action...

BACKGROUND: Positive remodeling is an integral part of the vascular adaptation process during the development of atherosclerosis, which can be detected by coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA). METHODS: A total of 426 patients who underwent both coronary CTA and optical coherence tomography (OCT) were included. Four machine learning (ML) models, gradient boosting machine (GBM), random forest (RF), deep learning (DL), and support vector machine (SVM), were employed to detect specific plaque features...

Osteopontin (OPN) and osteoprotegerin (OPG) are glycoproteins that participate in the regulation of tissue biomineralization. The aim of the project is to verify the hypothesis that the content of OPN and OPG in the aorta walls increases with the development of atherosclerosis and that these proteins are quantitatively related to the main proteins in the extracellular arteries matrix. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the OPN and OPG content in 101 aorta sections have been conducted. Additionally, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test has been performed to determine the collagen types I-IV and elastin content in the tissues...

BACKGROUND: Experimental coronary artery interventions are currently being performed on non-diseased blood vessels in healthy animals. To provide a more realistic pathoanatomical scenario for investigations on novel interventional and surgical therapies, we aimed to fabricate a stenotic lesion, mimicking the morphology and structure of a human atherosclerotic plaque. METHODS: In an interdisciplinary setting, we engineered a casting mold to create an atherosclerotic plaque with the dimensions to fit in a porcine coronary artery...

INTRODUCTION: Coronary artery calcium (CAC) scans contain useful information beyond the Agatston CAC score that is not currently reported. We recently reported that artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled cardiac chambers volumetry in CAC scans (AI-CAC™) predicted incident atrial fibrillation in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). In this study, we investigated the performance of AI-CAC cardiac chambers for prediction of incident heart failure (HF). METHODS: We applied AI-CAC to 5750 CAC scans of asymptomatic individuals (52% female, White 40%, Black 26%, Hispanic 22% Chinese 12%) free of known cardiovascular disease at the MESA baseline examination (2000-2002)...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Dyslipidemia and type 2 diabetes mellitus are two common conditions that are associated with an increased risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). In this review, we aimed to provide an in-depth and contemporary review of non-invasive approaches to assess subclinical atherosclerotic burden, predict cardiovascular risk, and guide appropriate treatment strategies. We focused this paper on two main imaging modalities: coronary artery calcium (CAC) score and computed tomography coronary angiography...

PURPOSE: To describe the ocular findings of murine pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) models with ATP-binding cassette subfamily C member 6 (Abcc6) gene knockout. METHODS: This experiment was conducted in four Abcc6-/- rats and compared with six wild-type Abcc6+/+ control rats. The animals underwent necropsy at 6 months of age. Histological examination of the eyes was performed. RESULTS: Histological examination of eight eyes from four Abcc6-/- rats revealed multiple nodular foci of calcification in the uvea, sclera, and conjunctiva, focally in perivascular distribution, as well as linear and nodular calcification of Bruch's membrane...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease which typically presents in young women. Patients with SLE exhibit features of accelerated atherosclerosis. Here, the present study reported a rare case of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in a male patient diagnosed with SLE. A 29-year-old male with no cardiovascular history was diagnosed with AMI and underwent coronary angiography, which showed a long-extended spiral-shaped dissection of the right coronary artery (RCA). The patient's autoimmune panel tested positive for antinuclear, anti-nuclear ribonucleoprotein/Smith and anti-Sjogren's syndrome A antibodies...

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery calcium (CAC) scans contain actionable information beyond CAC scores that is not currently reported. METHODS: We have applied artificial intelligence-enabled automated cardiac chambers volumetry to CAC scans (AI-CACTM ) to 5535 asymptomatic individuals (52.2% women, ages 45-84) that were previously obtained for CAC scoring in the baseline examination (2000-2002) of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). AI-CAC took on average 21 ​s per CAC scan...

Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease. Coronary artery calcium (CAC) is a marker of atherosclerotic disease events and mortality risk. Elevated GlycA, an emerging marker of inflammation, is associated with a higher risk for coronary artery disease (CAD). However, there is conflicting evidence on whether GlycA predicts subclinical CAD progression. We hypothesized that GlycA can predict subclinical CAC incidence/progression in healthy individuals. We included 2,690 ELSA-Brasil cohort participants without cardiovascular/chronic inflammatory disease not receiving statin therapy who had GlycA levels measured and two interval CAC assessments between 2010 through 2018...

BACKGROUND: Our understanding of the specific aspects of vascular contributions to dementia remains unclear. OBJECTIVES: We aim to identify the correlates of incident dementia in a multi-ethnic cardiovascular cohort. METHODS: A total of 6806 participants with follow-up data for incident dementia were included. Probable dementia diagnoses were identified using hospitalization discharge diagnoses according to the International Classification of Diseases Codes (ICD)...

AIM: Older patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are more likely to be excluded from clinical trials. This exclusion affects the quality of cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention in this population. METHODS: Baseline data from the Fukuoka Kidney Disease Registry (FKR) cohort, which included 4476 adult patients with CKD stages G1-G5, were cross-sectionally analyzed to compare the use of recommended drugs for preventing CVD in each age group. RESULTS: Different prescribing patterns were observed according to age for the cardiovascular drug classes...

This study assesses the agreement of Artificial Intelligence-Quantitative Computed Tomography (AI-QCT) with qualitative approaches to atherosclerotic disease burden codified in the multisociety 2022 CAD-RADS 2.0 Expert Consensus. 105 patients who underwent cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) for chest pain were evaluated by a blinded core laboratory through FDA-cleared software (Cleerly, Denver, CO) that performs AI-QCT through artificial intelligence, analyzing factors such as % stenosis, plaque volume, and plaque composition...

BACKGROUND: Medial arterial calcification is a chronic systemic vascular disorder distinct from atherosclerosis and is commonly observed in patients with chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and aging individuals. We previously showed that NR4A3 (nuclear receptor subfamily 4 group A member 3), an orphan nuclear receptor, is a key regulator in apo (apolipoprotein) A-IV-induced atherosclerosis progression; however, its role in vascular calcification is poorly understood. METHODS: We generated NR4A3-/- mice and 2 different types of medial arterial calcification models to investigate the biological roles of NR4A3 in vascular calcification...