Breast arterial calcification predicts increased risk of stroke and coronary artery disease

A new study published in the Journal of North American Menopause Society suggests that the presence of breast arterial calcifications (BACs) on regular screening mammography was linked with a considerably elevated risk of having coronary artery disease (CAD) and stroke.

According to the study backdrop, routine mammography is widely acknowledged in breast cancer screening and finds breast artery calcification in 14% of women who receive screening mammography. Breast artery calcifications, on the other hand, are rarely included on mammography reports since there is no known link between BAC and breast cancer. However, this coincidental discovery might be used as a CVD risk classification tool. As a result, Mathew Nudy and colleagues undertook this study to determine if the presence of breast artery calcifications detected on standard mammography is connected with the development of cardiovascular disease events following a 10-year follow-up period.

Women reporting for screening mammography were included in this prospective cohort for this investigation. Baseline data were gathered, including CVD history and CVD risk factors. The presence or absence of BAC was determined using mammograms. Participants returned questionnaires ten years later to assess the progression of CVD (CAD and stroke) and CVD risk variables.

The key findings of this study were:

1. Complete 10-year follow-up data were available for 1,039 of the 1,995 people who participated at baseline; of those, 114 (11.0%) were BAC-positive at baseline and 925 (89.0%) were BAC-negative.

2. After correcting for age, BAC-positive women were more likely than BAC-negative women to have CAD after 10 years of follow-up.

3. After adjusting for age, BAC-positive women were more likely than BAC-negative women to have had a stroke after 10 years.

In conclusion, the authors look forward to large, population-based, prospective studies to validate the link between BAC and CVD and to further understand what role BAC may have in stratifying a woman's CVD risk.

Reference: 

Nudy, M., Asmaro, R., Jiang, X., & Schnatz, P. F. The association between incidentally found breast arterial calcification on routine screening mammography and the development of coronary artery disease and stroke: results of a 10-year prospective study. Menopause (New York, N.Y.). https://doi.org/10.1097/GME.0000000000002088