| Affiliation: | (1) Department of Human Health Services, Division of Epidemiology, Statistics and Prevention, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA;(2) Division of Nuclear Cardiology, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, USA |
| Abstract: | Background Clinical guidelines emphasize risk assessment as vital to patient selection for medical primary intervention. However, risk assessment methods are restricted in their ability to predict further coronary events. The most widely accepted tool in the United States is the Framingham risk score. In these equations age is a powerful risk factor. Although the extent of coronary atherosclerosis increases with age, there is large inter-individual variability in the rate of development and progression of this disease. This fact limits the utility of Framingham scoring when applied to individuals. Electron beam tomography (EBT), which measures coronary calcium, provides a non-invasive method for assessing coronary plaque burden, thus offering the possibility of providing a more accurate estimate of an individual's "arterial age" than from chronological age alone. |
