Aortic arch calcification is strongly associated with coronary artery calcification.

BACKGROUND

We aimed to investigate the association between aortic arch and coronary artery calcification (CAC). We postulated that low- and high-risk CAC scores could be predicted with the evaluation of standard chest radiography for aortic arch calcification (AAC).

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Consecutive patients who were referred for a multidetector computerized tomography (MDCT) examination were enrolled prospectively. All patients were scanned using a commercially available 64-slice MDCT scanner for the evaluation of CAC score. A four-point grading scale (0, 1, 2 and 3) was used to evaluate AAC on the standard posterior-anterior chest radiography images.

RESULTS

The study group consisted of 248 patients. Median age of the study group was 52 (IQR: 10) years, and 165 (67 %) were male. AAC grades (r = 0.676, p < 0.0001) and age (r = 0.518, p < 0.0001) were significantly and positively correlated with CAC score. Presence of AAC was independently associated with the presence of CAC (OR: 11.20, 95 % CI 4.25 to 29.52). An AAC grade of ≥ 2 was the strongest independent predictor of a high-risk CAC score (OR: 27.42, 95 % CI 6.09 to 123.52). Receiver operating characteristics curve analysis yielded a strong predictive ability of AAC grades for a CAC score of ≥ 100 (AUC = 0.892, P < 0.0001), and ≥ 400 (AUC = 0.894, P < 0.0001). Absence of AAC had a sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 90 %, 84 % and 89 %, respectively, for a CAC score of < 100. An AAC grade of ≥ 2 predicted a CAC score of ≥ 400 with a sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 68 %, 98 % and 95 %, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

AAC is a strong and independent predictor of CAC. The discriminative performance of AAC is high in detecting patients with low- and high-risk CAC scores.