Background: The Agatston coronary artery calcium (CAC) score is a decision-guiding aid for risk assessment and personalized management in the primary prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
Objectives: To explore the real-life clinical experience of CAC testing by characterizing its indications, significance of scores, and corresponding lipid-lowering treatments.
Methods: A retrospective descriptive study of patients treated at the lipids clinic at Rabin Medical Center (Beilinson Campus), who underwent CAC score evaluation between 2017 and 2022 was conducted. The data collected from electronic medical files included demographics, co-morbidities, indications for the test, CAC score levels, and the recommended therapeutic regimen.
Results: The study cohort included 88 patients. The main indication was assessment of the existence of atherosclerosis in cases where there was no clear indication for lipid lowering treatment (65, 74%). In most patients, there was no evidence of atherosclerosis (CAC = 0 AU, n=30) or only mild disease (CAC=1–99 AU, n=35). As the CAC score increased, more patients were prescribed lipid lowering treatments, from very few prescriptions in those with a CAC score of 0 AU and almost 100% among those with score of ≥ 400 AU. The factors that predicted CAC > 0 AU were male sex and older age.
Conclusions: CAC scores should be used more often to determine risk assessment. Further analysis of the implications of scores between 0–400 AU is needed.