Artery calcification indicates higher heart disease risk

• New research shows that men with coronary artery calcificationhad an 11-times greater risk of developing heart disease in the next three years, even though the men didn't have a lot of the other heart disease risk factors, such as high blood pressure or cholesterol.
• The study results provide more evidence of a link between calcium deposits in the heart arteries and heart disease.
• But researchers say it's too soon to recommend routine calcium scans to screen for heart disease in people without other risk factors.
• "Although it appeared that screening would be relatively cost-effective in the analysis that we did, I think at this time you have to stop short of recommending screening in all asymptomatic individuals, because it is not shown that such a strategy could actually prevent adverse outcomes," says researcher Allen J. Taylor, MD, of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., in a news release.
• In the study, researchers followed about 2,000 U.S. Army personnel aged 40 to 50 who were undergoing regular physical examinations and had no evidence of heart disease.
• During the follow-up period, there were only nine cases among men of heart disease events, such as heart attack, chest pain, or death due to heart disease.
• But seven of these heart events (heart attacks, angina, or heart disease death) occurred among the 364 men who had evidence of calcium deposits; two heart events occurred in men without calcium deposits (1,263 men).
• The researchers show that the presence of any calcium deposit on coronary arteries was associated with an almost 12-fold risk of coronary heart disease.
• Taylorsays that in order for calcium scans to be useful in screening for heart disease, a positive result would have to be followed up with lifestyle changes and medical treatments designed to prevent heart attacks and other heart-related problems.