Mammographic features associated with cardiometabolic risk and mortality: Study

In the past few decades, microcalcifications found in routine mammograms were found to be associated with cardiometabolic disease in women. Microcalcifications are nothing but tiny calcium deposits that look like white specks on a mammogram. Microcalcifications are usually not a result of cancer. But if they appear in certain patterns and are clustered together, they may be a sign of precancerous cells or early breast cancer

A study conducted by Grassmann et. al to systematically evaluate the association of microcalcifications and other mammographic features with cardiometabolic disease risk and mortality in a large screening cohort and to understand a potential genetic contribution.

The researchers included 57, 867 women from a prospective mammographic screening cohort in Sweden (KARMA) and 49, 583 sisters. Cardiometabolic disease diagnoses and mortality and medication were extracted by linkage to Swedish population registries with virtually no missing data.

The results of the study are as follows:

• In the cardiometabolic phenome-wide association study, a higher number of microcalcifications were associated with increased risk for multiple cardiometabolic diseases, particularly in women with pre-existing cardiometabolic diseases.
• In contrast, dense breasts were associated with a lower incidence of cardiometabolic diseases.
• Also, similar associations in sisters of KARMA women, indicating a potential genetic overlap between mammographic features and cardiometabolic traits.
• Finally, the presence of microcalcifications were associated with increased cardiometabolic mortality in women with pre-existing cardiometabolic diseases while no such effects were found in women without cardiometabolic diseases.

The researchers concluded that mammographic features are associated with cardiometabolic risk and mortality. Their findings strengthen the notion that a combination of mammographic features and other breast cancer risk factors could be a novel and affordable tool to assess cardiometabolic health in women attending the mammographic screening.

Reference:

A study titled, "Mammographic features are associated with cardiometabolic disease risk and mortality" by Grassmann F et. al published in the European Heart Journal.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab502