Coronary artery calcium, coronary artery disease, and diabetes

Diabetes is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death in the US. Most sufferers are unaware that they have coronary artery disease, and death is often quite sudden. Electron beam computed tomography (EBCT) is a non-invasive procedure that detects coronary artery 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. Patients were also divided by gender and five age groups (0–39, 40–49, 50–59, 60–69, 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 both sexes. Both men and women with diabetes have a greater plaque burden, when 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 play a useful role in following the progression of CAD in patients with diabetes, as well as evaluating the influence of risk factor intervention and diabetic control.