Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2022

Abstract

Study objectives: The objectives of this study were to identify independent predictors for moderate/accentuated coronary artery calcium (CAC) score and compare patients who self-referred for CAC Computed Tomography (CT) testing to those who were provider-referred. Design: Patients underwent CAC between January to July 2019. The analysis was divided into self-referred patients influenced by a CAC community campaign who identified themselves as having cardiovascular risk factors compared to provider-referred intermediate-risk patients who were asymptomatic. SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC) was used for all analyses. Setting: Seven southwest Ohio hospitals from a single network. Participants: 2124 adult patients who received CAC CT (163 self and 1961 provider-referred). Interventions: CAC CT. Main outcome measures: Demographics, risk factors, lab values, prescriptions, and referral status were used to compare CAC score differences between self- and provider-referred patients. Results: For 2124 patients, three predictors for moderate/accentuated CAC score remained significant after multiple logistic regression: CKD (OR 0.24, CI 0.008-0.68, p < 0.05), COPD (OR 0.39, CI 0.19-0.80, p < 0.05), and CAD (OR 0.46, CI 0.22-0.98, p < 0.05). There were four differences between referred groups: history of PVD (OR 0.21, CI 0.05-0.86, p < 0.05), higher triglyceride (OR 1.004, CI 1.00-1.01, p < 0.05), higher LDL levels (OR 0.991, CI 0.98-1.00, p < 0.05), and beta blocker prescription (OR 4.38, CI 1.49-12.85, p < 0.05) in self-referred patients. Conclusions: CAC CT testing is associated with independent risk predictors and can be used to clarify cardiovascular risk in self- and provider-referred patients with statistical similarity. Patients reliably self-refer for CAC CT when risk is present during a community initiative. Such initiatives may have a preventive benefit and lead to earlier pursuit and optimization of anti-lipid therapies.

Comments

This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

DOI

10.1016/j.ahjo.2022.100088

PMCID

38560077

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