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Correlation of a new method of visual scoring of coronary artery calcification detected from low dose chest CT and all-cause mortality

Principal Investigator
Name
Hrudaya Nath
Degrees
MD
Institution
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Position Title
Professor of Radiology and Medicine
Email
About this CDAS Project
Study
NLST (Learn more about this study)
Project ID
201010-0001
Initial CDAS Request Approval
Oct 1, 2010
Title
Correlation of a new method of visual scoring of coronary artery calcification detected from low dose chest CT and all-cause mortality
Summary
Smoking is associated with a number of adverse outcomes, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). CVD related morbidity / mortality far exceeds mortality from lung cancer and COPD associated with smoking. Chest CT can be used to screen for lung nodules for early detection of lung cancer. Coronary artery calcification (CAC) can be detected on a chest CT as well, and is an accepted marker of atherosclerosis. A CAC score > 300 Agatston Units is associated with > 9 fold increase in cardiac events. Since CAC is always visible in any chest CT, visual estimation of significant calcification is of clinical value. This proposal seeks to conduct a case control study to correlate all cause mortality using a previously validated CAC visual scoring method applied to T-0 CT arm participants in the LSS.
Aims

1. In a case control study, examine the relationship of a method of visual scoring of CAC and all cause mortality, and as a sub-aim - cardiovascular-specific mortality.
2. Measure Agatston's scores to provide further validation of the correlation between visual scores and Agatston's scores.
3. Measure the inter observer variability in the visual scoring of CAC.

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