Echocardiography calcium score as predictive tools of severity of coronary artery disease

Abstract Background Coronary artery disease (CAD) represents a leading cause of death worldwide. Coronary angiography represents the gold standard for diagnosis and selection of the best treatment for the patients with coronary artery disease; however some efforts have been made to predict CAD severity and complexity using non-invasive methods in order to identify the patients at high risk for cardiovascular events with less risk to the patients and before doing coronary angiography. Characterization of coronaryartery calcification by computed tomography known as Coronary artery calcium score (CACS) is equivalent to the total coronary atherosclerosis load and is proven to be related to angiographically significant lesions. Echocardiographic calcium score is now validated against non-coronary calcium by computed tomography with lower cost and no irradiation safety issues for reclassification of cardiac risk. Aim and Objectives to determine the correlation of echocardiography calcium score to severity of coronary artery disease. Patients and Methods Patients coming to Ain Shams University Hospitals for elective coronary angiography were subjected to histoty taking, examination, blood samples and echocardiographic examination. The echocardiographic calcium score was correlated with syntax score of their coronary angiography films. Also syntax score was divided into three groups; low risk ≤ 18, intermediate risk 18-27 and high risk groups >27. Results The study included 45 patients; 21 of which were males representing 46.6% of the participants. The mean age of the whole group was 52.7 ± 8.18. The mean final calcium score of the whole study group was 4.95±1.29. The mean syntax score of the whole study group was 22.88±12.3. There was significant difference between the three subgroups of the syntax score regarding total calcium score (p value 0.013) and highly significant difference between the numerical values of syntax score and final calcium score. Conclusion Echocardiographic calcium score is correlated to syntax score and the severity of coronary artery disease. The low cost, availability and the radiation free nature of echocardiography make it an attractive candidate for the on-going research regarding the non-invasive tools for prediction of CAD.