Left ventricular mass (LVM) is an important independent risk factor for cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality. In the ROMICAT (rule out myocardial infarction using computer assisted tomography) study, increased LVM and LVMi measured by MDCT were associated with a greater degree of CT-detected coronary plaque burden. Abnormal LVM can be detected in young adults with other cardiovascular risk factors (e.g. obesity and hypertension), long before cardiovascular morbidity. If subclinical CAD and abnormal LVM can be detected in young adulthood long before CV events occur, the...

We retrospectively enrolled 490 consecutive individuals (383 males; mean age, 35.2 ± 4.4 years) who underwent cardiac CT. CV risk factors for the entire study population were obtained through review of medical records at the time of cardiac CT examinations. 10-year CHD risk based on the Framingham risk score (FRS) was calculated for each patient. Image acquisition was performed using a dual source 128-slice CT (Somatom Definition FLASH; Siemens Healthcare, Forchheim, Germany). First, all patients underwent non-enhanced imaging to calculate the coronary artery calcium (CAC)...

Clinical characteristics of the study population are described in Table 1. Table 1 Clinical characteristics of the subjects (n = 490) Characteristics Values (%) Age, years 35.2 ± 4.4 Male / Female 383 / 107 Symptom Typical chest pain 6 (1.2%) Atypical chest pain 35 (7.1%) Non-anginal pain 180 (36.7%) Asymptomatic 269 (54.9%) Pretest probability Intermediates 55 (11.2%) Low 165 (33.7%) Very low 270 (55.1%) HR, bpm 61.6 ± 11.6 Agatston calcium score 1.8 ± 19.5 Zero 462 (94.3%) 1-10 16 (3.3%) 10-100 11 (2.2%)...

LVM and LVMi were higher in young patients with CT-detected CAD than those without. In a multivariate analysis, LVM and LVMI measured by cardiac CT were independent predictors of CAD.

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