BACKGROUND Calcium is a shortfall essential nutrient that has been a mainstay of osteoporosis management. Recent and limited findings have prompted concern about the contribution of calcium supplementation to cardiovascular risk. A proposed mechanism is through the acceleration of coronary artery calcification. Determining causality between calcium intake and coronary artery calcification has b...

BACKGROUND Multidetector CT allows detection of coronary artery calcium and, after contrast injection, visualisation of the coronary artery lumen. It is commonly assumed that the absence of coronary calcification makes the presence of obstructive coronary lesions highly unlikely. This study evaluates the clinical characteristics of patients with at least one symptomatic, high-grade coronary art...

The incidence of coronary artery calcification was studied in 65 hearts obtained at necropsy. In cases over the age of 40 there was an incidence of coronary calcification of 79 per cent. The incidence increases with age and is slightly more common in men. These lesions occur more commonly in the left coronary circulation than the right. There is a strong association with aortic valve calcificat...

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality among renal transplant recipients. Data on the relationship between coronary artery calcification (CAC) and coronary ischaemia in renal transplantation patients are scant. We conducted a study to determine the prevalence and determinants of CAC in these patients; we also examined the frequency of coronary ischaemia in patients ...

Objective MicroRNAs (miRNAs) may serve as potential biomarkers in a variety of pathologies. The aim of this study was to determine whether miRNAs could serve as blood-based markers of isolated coronary artery calcification (CAC) defined as CAC in the absence of an underlying metabolic abnormality. Methods 24 age-matched and sex-matched patients who had been referred for elective CT coronary c...

Coronary artery calcification (CAC) is an established marker of subclinical atherosclerosis and an independent predictor of future coronary heart disease in the asymptomatic primary prevention population, particularly in the intermediate risk cohort. CAC also helps in reclassifying those patients and their risk of cardiovascular events into higher or lower risk categories. MESA (Multi-Ethnic St...

OBJECTIVES This study was designed to evaluate whether the absence of coronary calcium could rule out >or=50% coronary stenosis or the need for revascularization. BACKGROUND The latest American Heart Association guidelines suggest that a calcium score (CS) of zero might exclude the need for coronary angiography among symptomatic patients. METHODS A substudy was made of the CORE64 (Coronary ...

type 2 diabetes mellitus is associated with increased inflammation and accelerated atherosclerosis. the association of the pro-inflammatory and potentially pro-atherosclerotic molecule, pregnancy associated plasma protein-a (papp-a) with diabetes and vascular diseases remains to be further established. a total of 107 patients with type 2 diabetes and 101 healthy controls participated in this st...