Can Mammograms Also Screen for Calcified Arteries?

— Good correlation between calcification in breast and heart

Last Updated March 28, 2016
MedpageToday

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Breast artery calcification seen on digital mammography appears to predict coronary artery calcification with good accuracy, a study showed.

Among the 292 women with both digital mammography and CT scans available for analysis, nonzero breast arterial calcium scores had sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and accuracy for predicting nonzero coronary artery calcification of 63%, 76%, 70%, 69%, and 70%.

"Breast artery calcification is equivalent to both the Framingham Risk Score and the 2013 Cholesterol Guidelines Pooled Cohort Equations for the identification of high-risk women and is additive when women with established coronary artery disease are included," Jagat Narula, MBBS, MD, PhD, of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues concluded.

They reported the results online in JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging in conjunction with release of an abstract slated for presentation at the American College of Cardiology meeting in Chicago in April.

In this video, Narula describes potential clinical and public health implications of getting additional screening benefit from existing testing for millions of women.

From the American Heart Association:

Disclosures

The study was supported in part by the Flight Attendants Medical Research Institute.

Narula disclosed no relevant relationships with industry.

Primary Source

JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging

Source Reference: Margolies L, et al "Digital mammography and screening for coronary artery disease" J Am Coll Cardiol Img 2016; DOI: 10.1016/j.jcmg.2015.10.022.