Association of breast arterial calcifications detected by mammography and coronary artery calcifications quantified by multislice CT in a population of post-menopausal women.

PURPOSE: To assess the correlation between the presence and extent of breast arterial calcifications (BAC) detected at mammography and the extent of coronary atherosclerosis, as evaluated by multislice computed tomography (MSCT) coronary calcium quantification in a population of post-menopausal women.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seventy-four post-menopausal women aged under 65 years who had undergone mammography at our Department were studied by MSCT for coronary calcium quantification. The mammograms were screened for vascular calcifications which were graded according to severity and extension. The presence of coronary artery calcifications was assessed by MSCT using the cardiac reconstruction software. The data obtained were analyzed using the statistical package SPSS (version 10.1) for Windows.

RESULTS: The presence and severity of breast arterial calcifications showed a strong correlation with coronary calcifications in both models.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The study demonstrated that the presence of BAC is strongly correlated with the amount of coronary calcium detected by MSCT and therefore with the extent of coronary atherosclerosis. Moreover, there is a linear correlation between BAC severity and coronary calcium content, each incremental increase in BAC severity being associated with an average increase in coronary calcium content. Therefore, the presence and severity of BAC may provide indirect qualitative and quantitative information on the calcium present in the coronaries. As mammography is increasingly used as a screening test for breast carcinoma, breast arterial calcifications may represent an important sign with epidemiological and clinical significance for primary prevention.