Calcium Imaging May Improve Cardiac Risk Picture in Diabetes

Using computed tomography (CT) to image the calcification of coronary arteries may be a valuable way of assessing cardiac risk—and more accurate than traditional means—according to researchers presenting at the 2006 Cardiometabolic Health Congress, held October 19–21 in Boston.

Although the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) mortality and morbidity is two to four times greater in people with diabetes, the tools available to clinicians to accurately assess CAD in people with diabetes are lacking, says Paolo Raggi, MD, of Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans.

"Diabetic patients... have it worse, with higher mortality after coronary artery bypass graft surgery and PCTA [percutaneous transluminal angioplasty]," Raggi says.

The usual methods of assessing coronary artery health, based on detecting obstructed arteries, often are not useful in people with diabetes because their acute coronary syndrome often occurs without stenosis. See more.