European Heart Journal Advance Access originally published online on March 21, 2006
European Heart Journal 2006 27(8):899-900; doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehi849
© The European Society of Cardiology 2006. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Risk assessment with coronary artery calcium scoring: effects of smoking at young age
Department of Cardiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Albinusdreef 2, 2333 ZA Leiden, The Netherlands
* Corresponding author. Tel: +31 71 5262020; fax: +31 71 5266809. E-mail address: e.e.van_der_wall@lumc.nl
This editorial refers to Prognostic value of coronary artery calcium screening in asymptomatic smokers and non-smokers
by L.J. Shaw et al., on page 968
| The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below. |
In clinical cardiology, risk assessment has been focused on patients with suspected or known coronary artery disease. The available non-invasive imaging techniques have allowed differentiation between high- and low-risk patient groups. These imaging techniques mainly included nuclear imaging using SPECT and stress echocardiography.1 Nuclear imaging with SPECT is based on the detection of resting or stress-induced perfusion abnormalities, whereas stress echocardiography permits assessment of resting or stress-induced systolic wall motion abnormalities. Moreover, with the introduction of gated SPECT imaging and contrast-enhanced echocardiography, simultaneous evaluation of function and perfusion is now possible. Both imaging techniques rely on identification of obstructive coronary artery lesions that cause ischaemia, as reflected by stress-induced perfusion and/or systolic wall motion abnormalities. Indeed, a normal SPECT study or stress echocardiogram has been demonstrated to predict an excellent prognosis with a low event rate. Recently, a meta-analysis of 31 studies (n=69 655 patients)
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Related articles in EHJ:
- Prognostic value of coronary artery calcium screening in asymptomatic smokers and non-smokers
- Leslee J. Shaw, Paolo Raggi, Tracy Q. Callister, and Daniel S. Berman
EHJ 2006 27: 968-975.[Abstract] [FREE Full Text]