IMR Press / RCM / Volume 25 / Issue 3 / DOI: 10.31083/j.rcm2503085
Open Access Original Research
Coronary Artery Calcium Score–Weighted Clinical Likelihood Model Performance in Patients with Stable Chest Pain and Coronary Artery Calcium Scores of Zero
Yahang Tan1,2,†Chang Liu3,4,†Tao Chen5,†Yina Li4Chengjian Wang4Jia Zhao4,*Jia Zhou4,*
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1 Department of Cardiology, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University, 100069 Beijing, China
2 Heart Center and Beijing Key Laboratory of Hypertension, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University, 100069 Beijing, China
3 Clinical School of Thoracic, Tianjin Medical University, 300203 Tianjin, China
4 Department of Cardiology, Tianjin Chest Hospital, 300222 Tianjin, China
5 Department of Emergency, Hebei Petrochina Central Hospital, 065000 Langfang, Hebei, China
*Correspondence: orange2012@126.com (Jia Zhao); zhoujiawenzhang@126.com (Jia Zhou)
These authors contributed equally.
Rev. Cardiovasc. Med. 2024, 25(3), 85; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.rcm2503085
Submitted: 26 July 2023 | Revised: 9 November 2023 | Accepted: 14 November 2023 | Published: 4 March 2024
Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Background: For individuals with persistent stable chest pain (SCP) and a coronary artery calcium score (CACS) of 0, it might be challenging to establish the best risk assessment method for determining the individuals who will not benefit from further cardiovascular imaging testing (CIT). Thus, we investigated the CACS-weighted clinical likelihood (CACS-CL) model in SCP patients with a CACS of 0. Methods: Thus, to assess SCP, we originally enrolled 14,232 individuals for CACS and coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) scans between January 2016 and January 2018. Finally, patients with a CACS of 0 were included and followed up ​until January 2022. According to the established CACS-CL cutoffs of 15% and 5%, the associations between coronary artery disease (CAD) and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) in risk groups were evaluated, alongside the net reclassification improvement (NRI). Results: Of the 6689 patients with a CACS of 0, the prevalence of CAD increased significantly (p < 0.0001) in patients with higher CACS-CL. However, there was no significant difference in the CAD distribution (p = 0.0637) between patients with CACS-CL <5% and 5–15%. The association between the CACS-CL = 15%-determined risk groups and the occurrence of MACEs was stronger than for a CACS-CL = 5% (adjusted hazard ratio (HR): 7.24 (95% CI: 1.93–16.42) versus 3.68 (95% CI: 1.50–8.26)). Compared with the cutoff for CACS-CL = 5%, the NRI was 10.61% when using a cutoff for CACS-CL = 15%. Conclusions: Among patients with an SCP and CACS of 0, the CACS-CL model provided accurate predictions of CAD and MACEs. Compared to the cutoff for CACS-CL = 5%, the cutoff for CACS-CL = 15% seemed to be more effective and safer for deferring further CIT. Clinical Trial registration: NCT04691037.

Keywords
risk assessment strategy
stable chest pain
coronary artery calcium score
coronary computed tomography angiography
coronary artery calcium score-weighted clinical likelihood model
Funding
62206197/National Natural Science Foundation of China
62106160/National Natural Science Foundation of China
21JCYBJC00820/Applied and Basic Research by Multi-input Foundation of Tianjin
TJWJ2022QN067/Tianjin Health Research Project
23KPXMRC00110/Tianjin Scientific and Technological Project
2023006/Tianjin Key Research Program of Traditional Chinese Medicine
TJSQNYXXR-D2-134/Tianjin Health Industry High-level Talent Selection and Training Project
Figures
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