A 25-year study reveals the prognostic value of the calcium score (a powerful predictor of the risk of cardiovascular events in asymptomatic patients) in assessing the risk of heart failure.
A high calcium score in the coronary arteries increases the risk of suffering from heart failureaccording to a new study. the calcium score (CAC) is a strong predictor of the risk of cardiovascular events in asymptomatic patients. “We focused on people in their prime of life (around 50, editor’s note) because it is a period when the anomalies are asymptomatic”, explains Henrique Turin Moreira, co-author of the study and attending physician. at the hospital das clinicas de Ribeirão Preto (Brazil). For him, “the preventive control of these anomalies is essential”.
The heart has to work harder
His team followed 2,449 people for 25 years, starting the experiment on young adults in their twenties. Participants’ health was compared between the fifteenth and final year of the study (25th).
Conclusion: those whose calcium levels in the coronary artery were higher had an increase of 12% in left ventricular mass and 9% in right ventricular volume, independently of other risk factors. Abnormalities in the left ventricle mean the heart has had to work harder to pump blood efficiently and as a result it has become enlarged and thickened, a risk factor for heart failure.
Prevention with young people
“Given the high mortality associated with heart failure, these results are important,” conclude the authors, who insist on the need for prevention among young people. In France, in 2008-2009, heart failure affected 2.3% of the adult French population, or about 1,130,000 people. It is a major cause of death in France, regardless of age. In 2010, it was directly or indirectly responsible for more than 95,000 deaths.
Heart failure is the inability of the heart muscle to normally perform its role of propelling blood through the body. It can occur in the evolution of a myocardial infarction, angina pectoris or hypertension.
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