Measuring Calcium in Arteries Could Improve Heart Disease Prediction
Dr Tamar S. Polonsky, of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, and colleagues found that a score based on the calcium amount present in coronary arteries with the traditional factors are taken into account when assessing heart disease risk. It improved the prediction of risk and put more individuals in the most extreme risk category.
When fat and other substances built up under the inner layer of the artery wall, it might be the result for arterial calcified plaque. It is a syndrome of atherosclerosis, a disease of the vessel wall, which is medically termed as coronary artery disease (CAD).
CAD patients have a high risk for heart attacks. It is best explained as the plaque builds up, the arteries get narrower and narrower and can even stop blood flowing to the heart. The result is chest pain or angina, or a heart attack.