Coronary atherosclerosis burden is not advanced in patients with β-thalassemia despite premature extracardiac atherosclerosis: a coronary artery calcium score and carotid intima-media thickness study

Background Thalassemic patients demonstrate an increased rate of extracardiac vascular complications and increased carotid wall intima-media thickness (cIMT), but very low prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD). We investigated the atheroma burden by assessing the coronary artery calcium (CAC) and cIMT in these patients. Methods We examined 37 patients with beta-thalassemia and 150 healthy control volunteers with multi-detector computer tomography (CT) and ultrasonography to determine CAC score and cIMT, respectively. Results Propensity score matching (C-statistic: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.83-0.93) resulted in 27 pairs of patients; severe CAC was observed in 2 (7.4%) and 0 of beta-thalassemia patients and healthy volunteers respectively (P = 0.5). Median calcium score was 0 (0-0) in beta-thalassemia patients and 0 (0-4) in healthy volunteers (P = 0.8). Median intima-media thickness was higher in beta-thalassemia patients compared to control group [0.45 (0.06-0.65) vs. 0.062 (0.054-0.086); P = 0.04]. Conclusions Patients with beta-thalassemia in comparison with healthy control subjects exhibit similar CAC score and increased cIMT. Our findings indicate a disparate rate of progression of atherosclerosis between coronary and extracardiac arteries in these patients lending support to the epidemiological evidence.