BACKGROUND Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death among end-stage renal disease patients. There is evidence that coronary calcification is a marker of atherosclerotic vascular disease and is predictive of cardiovascular events, especially in patients on renal replacement therapy. It has recently been suggested that CHD begins in the pre-dialysis period. However, data regardi...

BACKGROUND Previous studies demonstrated an association between antibodies to mycobacterial heat-shock protein 65 (mHSP65) and carotid artery thickening. We examined whether mHSP65 antibodies are associated with levels of coronary calcification that appear to reflect preclinical coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS AND RESULTS Serum specimens from 201 healthy asymptomatic subjects (52% male...

INTRODUCTION Detection of coronary artery calcification (CAC) allows for a refined prediction of cardiovascular risk beyond global risk assessment algorithms. Newer-generation, high-resolution, flat-panel digital detector (FPDD) fluoroscopic systems may provide higher CAC detection rates compared with older fluoroscopic devices. METHODS We compared the CAC detection rates of two fluoroscopic ...

BACKGROUND Arterial calcium as measured by 64-slice computed tomography coronary angiography (64-CT) is a reliable predictor of cardiovascular disease risk. Lipid-rich plaques with lower degrees of calcification may pose greater risk for adverse coronary events than more stabilized calcified plaques as a result of the increased risk of plaque rupture, migration, and subsequent acute coronary sy...

OBJECTIVE To clarify whether stiffness and impaired blood flow in lower-leg arteries are associated with severity of coronary artery calcification among asymptomatic diabetic patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We enrolled 102 asymptomatic type 2 diabetic patients with no history of cardiovascular complications consecutively admitted to our hospital. Agatston coronary artery calcium (CAC) s...

BACKGROUND The use of oral calcium supplementation among the elderly for prevention and treatment of osteoporosis and osteopenia is increasing. The incidence of aortic valve disease and coronary artery disease also is increasing. No study thus far has been done to demonstrate whether this affects the progression of calcification in both the valves and vasculature. We sought to determine whether...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Coronary calcification as detected by electron-beam CT measures the atherosclerotic plaque burden and has been reported to predict coronary events. Because atherosclerosis is a generalized process, coronary calcification may also be associated with manifest atherosclerotic disease at other sites of the vascular tree. We examined whether coronary calcification as detected ...

chronic total occlusion (cto) intervention is still a challenging problem. the aim of this study is to determine factors that affect pci results.the study was conducted on 72 patients in two centers. cto angioplasty was done by the antegrade approach from the femoral and/or radial approach. the role of age, gender, anatomical variations such as calcification, length of the lesion, proximal bend...

BACKGROUND High C-reactive protein (CRP) levels are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events, even in apparently healthy individuals. It has not been established whether elevated CRP reflects an increased burden of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied a stratified random sample of 321 men and women (mean age 60 years) from the Framingham Heart...

Cardiac fluoroscopy to detect coronary calcification was performed on 360 patients before undergoing coronary arteriography for proven or suspected coronary artery disease. Among the 154 patients in whom coronary calcification was identified, 97% had significant coronary disease angiographically (.70% stenosis). In this group, the distribution of one, two, and three vessel coronary disease was ...