Thoracoabdominal calcifications predict CVD and total mortality

8 March 2010

MedWire News: Thoracoabdominal calcification predicts cardiovascular disease (CVD) and total mortality in Type 2 diabetics and nondiabetics, say investigators.

Markku Laakso (Turku University, Finland) and team investigated the efficacy of measuring thoracoabdominal calcification and the inflammatory marker CRP for prediction of CVD mortality in 833 Type 2 diabetics and 1292 nondiabetics.

The participants were aged 45–64 years and had no prior evidence of CVD at baseline. The cohort was followed-up for 18 years for incident CVD or all-cause mortality.

During the follow-up period there were 817 all-cause deaths and 465 CVD-related deaths. Thoracoabdominal calcification was graded from no calcification (grade 0) to marked calcification (grade 3) by a radiologist using lateral lumbar radiograms.

The team found that thoracoabdominal vascular calcification was more common in men than in women, at 66.1% versus 55.7%, and in Type 2 diabetics versus nondiabetics, at 71.5% versus 53.6%. Type 2 diabetic women with thoracoabdominal vascular calcification were significantly more likely to also have a CRP concentration of 3 mg/l or above, but this was not the case in the other three groups.

Following adjustment for conventional risk factors, grade 3 calcification increased the risk for CVD death 1.5-, 3.0-, 5.0-, and 7.8-fold in Type 2 diabetic men, Type 2 diabetic women, and nondiabetic men and women, respectively, compared with grade 0 calcification.

Similarly, the risk for all-cause death was increased 1.8-, 3.1-, 4.0-, and 3.0-fold in people with grade 3 calcification in the corresponding groups compared with grade 0.

“In this 18-year follow-up study, marked thoracoabdominal calcifications predicted CVD and total mortality,” conclude the authors in the journal Diabetes Care.

“Based on the findings of the present study, detection of thoracoabdominal radiological calcification should lead to a detailed evaluation and treatment of CVD risk,” they suggest.

MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a trading division of Springer Healthcare Limited. © Springer Healthcare Ltd; 2010

Diabetes Care 2010; 33: 583–585