Adding Coronary Artery Calcium to Risk Scores Aids Cardiovascular Risk Prediction

Coronary artery calcium (CAC) screening can identify individuals with subclinical atherosclerosis who are at higher risk for cardiac events than otherwise expected. Two separate studies were reported simultaneously using data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).

McClelland and colleagues sought to evaluate 10-year heart disease risk prediction using coronary artery calcium and traditional risk factors, derived in the MESA cohort. They assessed the utility of a novel risk equation in two well-described, similar external cohorts, which demonstrated good-to-excellent discrimination and calibration in these cohorts. The authors found that the inclusion of CAC measurements in the MESA risk score offered significant improvement i…