The Association of Mitral Annular Calcification With Cardiovascular and Noncardiovascular Outcomes: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Mitral annular calcification (MAC) may be a potential marker of biologic aging. However, the association of MAC with noncardiovascular measures, including bone mineral density (BMD), incident renal failure, dementia, and noncardiovascular mortality, is not well-studied in a multiracial cohort. We used data from 6,814 participants (mean age: 62.2 +/- 10.2 years, 52.9% women) without cardiovascular disease at baseline in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. MAC was assessed with noncontrast cardiac computed tomography at study baseline. Using multivariable-adjusted linear and logistic regression, we assessed the cross-sectional association of MAC with BMD and walking pace. Furthermore, using Cox proportional hazards, we evaluated the association of MAC with incident renal failure, dementia, and all-cause mortality. In addition, we assessed the association of MAC with cardiovascular and noncardiovascular mortality using competing risks regression. The prevalence of MAC was 9.5% and was higher in women (10.7%) than in men (8.0%). MAC was associated with low BMD (coefficient -0.04, 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.06 to -0.02), with significant interaction by gender (p-interaction = 0.035). MAC was, however, not associated with impaired walking pace (odds ratio 1.09, 95% CI 0.89 to 1.33). Compared with participants without MAC, those with MAC had an increased risk of incident renal failure, albeit nonsignificant (hazard ratio [HR] 1.18, 95% CI 0.95 to 1.45), and a significantly higher hazards of dementia (HR 1.36, 95% CI 1.10 to 1.70). In addition, participants with MAC had a substantially higher risk of all-cause (HR 1.47, 95% CI 1.29 to 1.69), cardiovascular (subdistribution HR 1.39, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.87), and noncardiovascular mortality (subdistribution HR 1.35, 95% CI 1.14 to 1.60) than those without MAC. MAC >= 100 versus <100 was significantly associated with reduced BMD, incident renal failure, dementia, all-cause, cardiovascular, and noncardiovascular mortality. In conclusion, MAC was associated with reduced BMD and dementia and all-cause, cardiovascular, and noncardiovascular mortality in this multiracial cohort. Thus, MAC may be a marker not only for atherosclerotic burden but also for other metabolic and inflammatory factors that increase the risk of noncardiovascular outcomes and death from other causes. (c) 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.