Evaluation of the Correlation Between Breast Artery Calcification Score and Coronary Artery Calcium Score in Prediction of the Risk for Cardiovascular Disease

Objective: Coronary artery calcium (CAC) score is a scoring system used in stratification of coronary risks. Breast artery calcification (BAC) is a type of medial artery calcification which can be seen on mammography, and also known as arteriosclerosis. It has been reported that there is a significant correlation between BAC and CAC, and presence of BAC improves the ability for detection of women with CAC. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between BAC on mammography and CAC.
Methods: A total of 31 patients who presented to our hospital for screening or diagnosis with mammographic evaluation and who recently presented for CAC between 2015 and 2018 were included in the study. Agstston method was used to determine CAC score. Total BAC, which differs between 0-12 was measured based on the number and length of calcified vessels and severity of calcification on mammography.
Results: The mean BAC scores were found as 0 in one patient, 1-3 in nine patients, and 4-12 in 21 patients. The mean CAC scores were found as 0 in eight, 11-100 in 12 patients, 101-400 in 8 patients, and >400 in 3 patients. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between BAC and CAC scores.
Conclusion: Our study revealed a positive correlation between BAC and CAC scores. It was found that mammographic calcification scoring, which is already commonly used as a screening tool and is more advantageous over tomography, can be used to determine intermediate risk groups for cardiovascular diseases in an early period.