Journal Club- Coronary artery calcium levels to be a predictor of sudden cardiac death

Sudden Cardiac Death risks are steadily increasing with coronary artery calcium burden simultaneously. This is independent of the more common risk factors in primary-prevention patients considered low- to intermediate-risk. There was no association between Sudden Cardiac Death risk and age, sex, diabetes, smoking, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and family history of heart disease.

The study included 66,636 primary prevention patients from the coronary artery calcium Consortium. They had been referred to coronary artery calcium imaging because of the presence of at least one ASCVD risk factor, such as dyslipidemia, family history of premature heart disease, hypertension, or diabetes. The coronary artery calcium score, starting at about 100, seems "more strongly associated with a sudden cardiac arrest" than more familiar sudden cardiac death risk predictors, such as prolonged heart-rate-corrected QT (QTc) interval or QRS duration.