Computed tomography coronary angiography plaque burden in patients with suspected coronary artery disease

Purpose To determine the relationship between established cardiovascular risk factors, clinical presentation and the extent of coronary artery disease (CAD), as described with computed tomography coronary angiography. Material and methods In this cross-sectional study, we included 567 symptomatic individuals without a history of CAD who consecutively underwent 64-slice computed tomography coronary angiography for evaluation of suspected CAD. We analyzed the prevalence of CAD depending on sex, age, symptoms and risk factors. Results A total of 8542 segments were analyzed. No evidence of CAD was observed in 225 patients (40%), nonsignificant CAD in 221 patients (39%) and significant CAD (luminal narrowing >50%) in the remaining 121 patients (21%). CAD increased with advancing age, significantly above 50 years (P<0.05). Female patients had a higher prevalence of normal coronary arteries and males of significant CAD (P<0.01). With the increase of risk factors, there was a significant increase of the significant disease (P<0.01). Typical pain with respect to atypical pain had the strongest association with significant CAD (16 vs. 38%; P<0.05). In multivariate analysis, the number of risk factors, age, male sex and typical pain remained strong predictors of significant CAD (P<0.0001). Conclusion Computed tomography coronary angiography may play an important role in risk stratification of patients with suspected CAD. J Cardiovasc Med 10:913-920 (C) 2009 Italian Federation of Cardiology.