Is coronary artery calcification serious?

If you have coronary artery calcification, you are at high risk of developing coronary artery disease and serious adverse cardiovascular events (MACE).

Coronary artery calcification

is the buildup of calcium in the walls of the arteries that supply oxygen-rich blood to the heart. This calcium causes the walls to harden more, as is the case with atherosclerosis. It can also cause a narrowing of the inside of the coronary artery, which can limit blood flow to the heart muscle.

Coronary calcification occurs when calcium builds up in plaque found in the walls of the coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart muscle. The presence of coronary calcification may be an early sign of coronary artery disease, which can cause a heart attack. Plaque inside the heart's arteries can grow and restrict blood flow to the heart muscles. Measuring calcified plaque with a heart scan may allow your doctor to identify possible coronary artery disease before you have signs and symptoms.

Coronary artery calcification (CAC) is highly prevalent in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and is associated with significant adverse cardiovascular events. You may have a high calcium score, but if you were injected with a dye into your coronary arteries, either during a coronary artery CT scan (which differs from a CT scan with a non-contrast coronary calcium score) or during a coronary angiogram with fluoroscopy, there may be no blockage in the arteries or there may be no significant obstruction. Giovanni Lorenz shares how patients diagnosed with coronary artery calcification can benefit from getting a second opinion, followed by an in-depth analysis with Dr. Subsequently, studies determined that medial calcification is associated with arterial stiffness, increasing the risk of adverse cardiovascular events.

In addition, some young patients may not have calcium in their coronary arteries, but still have an artery blockage, sometimes due to soft plaque. Coronary artery calcification was previously thought to be a benign process, and calcific injury increases with aging. Coronary artery calcification can be seen in many different types of radiological exams, such as X-rays, CT scans, and magnetic resonance imaging. Coronary artery bypass surgery, also known as coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, restores normal blood flow through narrowed or clogged coronary arteries by using a healthy blood vessel removed from the leg, arm, or chest to create a detour around the problem area.

The TAXUS-IV trial (slow-release, polymer-based, paclitaxel-releasing stent) was a prospective, double-blind, randomized, multicenter study that examined the impact of calcified lesion on clinical and angiographic outcomes after the implantation of the paclitaxel-releasing stent. These calcification fragments and sheets can be easily identified by radiography, as well as by computed tomography and intravascular imaging. Measuring coronary artery calcification by scoring is a reasonable metric for assessing cardiovascular risk in asymptomatic adults with intermediate risk. Many imaging modalities have proposed that irregular calcification is a predictor of unstable plaque and have suggested that more extensive calcification is associated with stable plaques and perhaps with the use of statin therapy.

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