Calcium Build-up a Problem for all Races
Reported March 31, 2008
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — It is widely known that calcium build-up in the coronary arteries is a good predictor of heart disease in white patients, but researchers now say it is also a strong risk factor for several racial and ethnic groups.
For a median of 3.8 years, researchers followed a sample of 6,722 men and women who had no history of clinical cardiovascular disease. About 39 percent were white, 27.6 percent were black, 21.9 percent were Hispanic and 11.9 percent were Chinese. The researchers found no major differences in the value of calcium scores on predicting coronary risks among the different racial and ethnic groups. Of the sample of patients, there were 162 coronary events — 89 were major. Overall, when coronary calcium levels doubled, the risk of a major coronary event increased by 15 percent to 35 percent and for any coronary event, by 18 percent to 39 percent.
Study authors say previous studies have found coronary calcification differs substantially among ethnic groups. Our study suggests that these differences do not decrease the predictive value of this subclinical marker in American minority groups, study authors write. Our results, in fact, suggest that the coronary calcium score is valuable for the prediction of future events even in ethnic groups in which coronary calcification is less prevalent.
SOURCE: The New England Journal of Medicine, 2008;358:1336-1345
