Cited 6 times since 2021 (1.4 per year) source: EuropePMC Journal of cardiovascular computed tomography, Volume 15, Issue 4, 1 1 2021, Pages 322-330 Progression of whole-heart Atherosclerosis by coronary CT and major adverse cardiovascular events. van Rosendael AR, Lin FY, van den Hoogen IJ, Ma X, Gianni U, Al Hussein Alawamlh O, Al'Aref SJ, Peña JM, Andreini D, Budoff MJ, Cademartiri F, Chinnaiyan K, Choi JH, Conte E, Marques H, de Araújo Gonçalves P, Gottlieb I, Hadamitzky M, Leipsic J, Maffei E, Pontone G, Raff GL, Shin S, Kim YJ, Lee BK, Chun EJ, Sung JM, Lee SE, Han D, Berman DS, Virmani R, Samady H, Stone P, Narula J, Bax JJ, Shaw LJ, Min JK, Chang HJ

Background

The current study aimed to examine the independent prognostic value of whole-heart atherosclerosis progression by serial coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE).

Methods

The multi-center PARADIGM study includes patients undergoing serial CCTA for symptomatic reasons, ≥2 years apart. Whole-heart atherosclerosis was characterized on a segmental level, with co-registration of baseline and follow-up CCTA, and summed to per-patient level. The independent prognostic significance of atherosclerosis progression for MACE (non-fatal myocardial infarction [MI], death, unplanned coronary revascularization) was examined. Patients experiencing interval MACE were not omitted.

Results

The study population comprised 1166 patients (age 60.5 ​± ​9.5 years, 54.7% male) who experienced 139 MACE events during 8.2 (IQR 6.2, 9.5) years of follow up (15 death, 5 non-fatal MI, 119 unplanned revascularizations). Whole-heart percent atheroma volume (PAV) increased from 2.32% at baseline to 4.04% at follow-up. Adjusted for baseline PAV, the annualized increase in PAV was independently associated with MACE: OR 1.23 (95% CI 1.08, 1.39) per 1 standard deviation increase, which was consistent in multiple subpopulations. When categorized by composition, only non-calcified plaque progression associated independently with MACE, while calcified plaque did not. Restricting to patients without events before follow-up CCTA, those with future MACE showed an annualized increase in PAV of 0.93% (IQR 0.34, 1.96) vs 0.32% (IQR 0.02, 0.90), P ​< ​0.001.

Conclusions

Whole-heart atherosclerosis progression examined by serial CCTA is independently associated with MACE, with a prognostic threshold of 1.0% increase in PAV per year.

J Cardiovasc Comput Tomogr. 2021 1;15(4):322-330