Revisiting October’s Insights: “Calcifications in modern medicine”
The session explored the progression of atherosclerosis, the correlation between calcium and atherosclerosis, and the importance of CAC in risk prediction. Various imaging modalities for calcium detection and treatment strategies for calcified lesions were discussed. The session also highlighted the importance of coronary calcium scoring in assessing cardiovascular risk and the impact of sex differences on outcomes following calcium modification procedures.
Michael Papadakis: Word of caution! Already on treatment with statins, they tend to have a high calcium score. It’s still a bit predictive, but with an attenuated additive value.
And also, just because I’m interested in sports cardiology, please note that we do find more calcium and we do find more plaques as well in veteran athletes. And this is a study on 150 athletes. Those people have been exercising for 30 to 35 years in high endurance events, with an average marathons of about 10 to 15 per average; some of them have more than 100 marathons in their lifetime.
How do we interpret that? For the time being, well compared to controls, we know that they have more calcified compared to no-calcified or mixed plaques. And we consider that as a reassuring sign, but that’s something we can discuss during our panel discussion.
