Coronary artery calcium, coronary artery disease, and diabetes

Diabetes is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which is the le ading cause of death in the US. Most sufferers are unaware that they have c oronary artery disease, and death is often quite sudden. Electron beam comp uted tomography (EBCT) is a non-invasive procedure that detects coronary ar tery disease (CAD) by measuring the amount of coronary artery calcium (CAC) . We employ this procedure to study the effect of diabetes on CAC. EBCT was employed to measure the amount of coronary artery calcium in a population of 3389 patients referred to the Spokane Coronary Artery Center. This was a cross-sectional study. The average and median CAC values were computed for two groups of patients, namely those with diabetes and those without. Pati ents were also divided by gender and five age groups (0-39, 40-49, 50-59, 6 0-69, and > 69 years). The mean and median CAC values were much larger for those with diabetes compared to those without for all age groups and in bot h sexes. Both men and women with diabetes have a greater plaque burden, whe n compared to a population with coronary artery disease with no history of diabetes. This plaque burden is greater in males than in females. CAC may p lay a useful role in following the progression of CAD in patients with diab etes, as well as evaluating the influence of risk factor intervention and d iabetic control. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved .