Matthew Jay Budoff

..In recent years, the Congress has advanced awareness of the contribution of multiple endocrine and paracrine systems to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease...

..To evaluate the agreement of bone mineral density (BMD) between lumbar (L) and individual thoracic (T) vertebrae and identify a standard thoracic spine level for BMD assessment in cardiac computed tomography (CT) images...

..CT-STAT is the first multicenter trial to demonstrate the power of coronary CTA to streamline patient care in the acute setting and radically transform current treatment algorithms...

..88 for the prediction of obstructive CAD. In patients suspected of CAD, low fingertip temperature rebound measured by DTM significantly predicted CTA-diagnosed obstructive disease...

..80, P ≤ 0.001). Central aortic valve coaptation area is a central area present at the coaptation of nodules of arantius of aortic cusps during diastole; it is incompetent and increased in size in patients with aortic regurgitation...

..0001; r = 0.84, p < 0.0001, respectively). These results confirm that the severity index correlates with hemodynamic severity of aortic valve disease and may prove to be a useful measure in patients with aortic sclerosis and AS...

..The effect of aggressive medical therapy on quantitative coronary plaque burden is not generally known, especially in ethnic Chinese...

..The diagnostic accuracy of nuclear stress testing and electron beam tomography (EBT) was evaluated to differentiate between nonischemic and ischemic CM, using coronary angiography as the reference standard...

..We sought to evaluate the progression of atherosclerosis in asymptomatic persons with type 2 diabetes and measure the influence of statin therapy on CAC progression...

..g., non-invasive stress imaging) and intensification of medical therapy; CAC should have a significant impact on early detection and management of CAD...

..The aim of this study was to compare the interscan variability for both Agatston and volume scores derived with newer (16- and 64-MDCT) scanners with that derived with older scanners in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis...

..This article reviews information pertaining to the clinical use of CAC for assessing coronary atherosclerosis as a useful predictor of coronary artery disease (CAD) in certain population of patients...

..This paper reviews the diagnostic utility and limitations of cardiac CT and how it could be integrated into clinical practice...

..If a non-cardiac abnormality is visualized by the primary interpreter of the cardiac CT, appropriate referral or follow-up is prudent...

..It not only provides high-resolution anatomical information of the coronary artery tree but also helps define other aspects of the cardiovascular anatomy, be it normal or abnormal...

..Until data are available to the opposite, we should use our good judgment and restraint and not perform large-field reconstructions for the explicit purpose of screening...

..In this study, we sought to compare the accuracies of CTA and myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) for identifying symptomatic patients with hemodynamically significant obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD)...

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..The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of electrocardiographically gated 64-multidetector row coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA) in individuals without known coronary artery disease (CAD)...

..We sought to evaluate the progression of subclinical atherosclerosis in postmenopausal women using no hormone replacement therapy (HRT), combined therapy, and estrogen alone in an observational study...

..This study was designed to assess whether aged garlic extract therapy with supplements (AGE+S) favorably affects inflammatory and oxidation biomarkers, vascular function and progression of atherosclerosis as compared to placebo...

..In this study, we sought to evaluate the characteristics associated with incident CHD events in the setting of minimal (score <or=10) or absent CAC (score of zero)...

..We hypothesized that vascular image opacification and uniformity of vascular enhancement between slices can be improved using multiphase contrast medium injection protocols...

..Although individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at markedly increased mortality risk, the incidence, prevalence, and prognosis of CAC in CKD are not well understood...

..This study examined a large cohort to assess whether progression of coronary artery calcium (CAC) was associated with all-cause mortality, and which among 3 different methods to assess CAC progression provided the best estimate of risk...

..We sought to evaluate concordance of CAC and TAC scores on ungated (thoracic) and electrocardiogaphically (ECG)-gated (cardiac) MDCT scans...

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..We evaluated the interscan variation in coronary artery calcium (CAC), Agatston score (AS), and volume score (VS) between EBT and 64-MDCT (VCT; GE, Milwaukee, Wis)...

..Increases in OxPL/apoB and lipoprotein(a) correlated strongly with increases in vascular function and predicted a lack of progression of CAC...

..0 +/- 49.1 %/year. CONCLUSION: Virtually all patients with AVC had CC, potentially explaining the coronary risk associated with AVC. There is substantially parallel development between rates of progression of EBT-assessed AVC and CC...

..This study investigated whether cardiac computed tomography angiography (CTA) can predict all-cause mortality in symptomatic patients...

..In summary, coronary calcium detection significantly improves the accuracy of global cardiovascular risk prevention, the noninvasive tracking of the atherosclerotic burden, and the prediction of cardiovascular events...

..Adding family history, obesity, and physical inactivity to traditional risk assessment improves prediction of advanced CAC, which may lead these individuals to be treated more aggressively at an earlier age...

..However, no study has evaluated the ability of AGE to inhibit vascular calcification, a marker of plaque formation in human coronary arteries...

..In this study, we sought to determine the rate of new calcifications in patients initially presenting with a zero initial score on electron beam tomography (EBT)...

..The objective of the study is to assess the differences in the prevalence and severity of coronary artery calcification, as a measure of atherosclerosis, in these different ethnic groups...

..This study sought to evaluate the relationship between microalbuminuria (MA) and the development and progression of atherosclerosis, as assessed by incident and progression of coronary artery calcification (CAC)...

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..Cardiac computed tomographic angiography (CTA) provides for accurate noninvasive diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD)...

..Current review of the literature available suggests CAC to be more relevant in evaluating CHD in a clinical setting. Given the higher cost of CAC scanning compared with CRP, cost-effectiveness studies are still needed...

..25 to 30.18). In conclusion, TAC is associated with the incidence and progression of CAC. The detection of TAC may improve risk stratification efforts. Future clinical outcomes studies are needed to support such an approach...

..Several studies reported event rates of zero for those persons without CAC by cardiac computed tomography (CT)...

..CONCLUSION: Presence of elevated HCY (>12 micromol/L) strongly and independently predicts progression of coronary plaque burden...

..The aim of this study was to evaluate coronary artery calcium screening image quality between the e-Speed and C-150 scanners (GE Imatron, San Francisco, CA)...

..This study sought to compare measures of brachial artery distensibility to subclinical atherosclerosis as measured by electron beam tomography (EBT)...

..An increased rate of progression of coronary calcium seems to indicate a substantially increased risk for adverse cardiac events, suggesting that this modality can be used to monitor the efficacy of therapy...

..Outcome studies and randomized trials need to be done to quantify the true value and cost-effectiveness of this approach...

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..The combination of EBT with TMST is a potentially useful diagnostic strategy to reduce the number of false-positive test results...

..Results of this study suggest that AVC scores should be calculated routinely for coronary calcium screening EBT scans, and that patients with Agatston AVC scores above a certain level (e.g., >150) should be referred for echocardiography...

..Such a model could greatly facilitate clinical triage in symptomatic patients with no known CAD...

..That is why the US national guidelines have recently elevated their recommendation levels to Class IIa for use of CAC and CIMT in risk stratification of the asymptomatic intermediate-risk population...

..Aortic calcification depicted on nonenhanced CT images was highly specific for obstructive CAD...

..Further studies comparing the short- and long-term clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of these tests are required to determine their optimal role in the management of symptomatic patients with suspected CAD...

..The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of nuclear stress imaging as compared with noninvasive coronary artery imaging using 64-detector row cardiac computed tomography...

..To test the hypothesis that a calibration phantom would improve interpatient and interscan variability in coronary artery calcium (CAC) studies...

..We performed a cross-sectional study to determine which of these variables are independently associated with thoracic calcium...

..Inter- and intra-observer reproducibility was excellent (> 98%). There is minimal inter-scan variability for subjects with higher scores (> 65) for both scoring methods...

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..CONCLUSIONS: MDCT is a promising tool for coronary calcium scoring; however, more studies are needed comparing EBCT and MDCT, especially at lower CAC levels...

..Aortic valve calcification (AVC) and atherosclerosis share causative and pathologic features...

..This article will review such a screening method, namely coronary calcium scanning, in the field of geriatric cardiology...

..Left ventricular (LV) mass is a useful independent predictor of cardiovascular events. We sought to develop a new correlate of LV mass using noncontrast-enhanced cardiac computed tomography (NCE-CCT)...

..The C-150 XP has the greatest noise effect in comparison to the C300 and e-Speed scanners. Improved image noise should improve reproducibility of the calcium measurement with these newer devices...

..0001). CONCLUSIONS: CT angiography accurately characterized plaque morphology and may be a useful tool in noninvasive evaluation of plaque morphology during drug therapy trials...

..5 mm collimation EBA protocol compared to a 3 mm protocol. Both protocols though were insufficient for reliable visualization of the right coronary artery branches and distal LAD segments...

..Determination of CAC may provide incremental value to FRE in identifying asymptomatic women who will benefit from targeted preventative measures...

..Compared with magnetic resonance imaging, with a reported accuracy of 72% in the only multicenter study, computed tomography has great promise to become the primary method of noninvasive coronary angiography...

..We evaluated MDCT correlation of total plaque and various plaque subtypes in carotid and coronary arteries...

..05). Impaired aortic distensibility strongly correlates with the severity of coronary atherosclerosis. Addition of ADI to CAC and traditional risk factors provides incremental value to predict at-risk individuals...

..We assessed the accuracy of electron beam computed tomographic angiography (EBA) for detection of coronary stenoses, using improved triggering techniques and thinner slice collimation...

..Electron beam computed tomographic angiography can provide detailed information for coronary sinus instrumentation, including anomalies potentially affecting the approach to resynchronization therapy...

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