What is the diagnostic performance of CT coronary calcium scoring?
Coronary calcium scoring allows for detection and quantification of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis. It has been shown to identify at-risk patients with a higher predictive accuracy than conventional risk factor assessment. Moreover, the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) trial of 6809 patients demonstrated that coronary calcium score was the most accurate tool for predicting long-term cardiac events. Compared to patients with no coronary calcium, hard event rates in patients with scores from 101 to 300 were increased 7.73-fold, and 9.67-fold among those with a score above 300. Three other large trials have confirmed the benefits of imaging subclinical coronary atherosclerosis for improved risk prediction, including in elderly patients.
