Knowledge Bank

Introduction/Background: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has documented that the leading cause of death in the United States, is cardiovascular disease (CVD). This would include those conditions such as varied heart conditions, coronary artery disease, and heart attack. 1 Specifically, CVD is responsible for the death of one out of every 5 women in the United States.2 To address this issue, the research question was: What specific diagnostic tests, including a novel approach to detecting abdominal aortic calcifications (AAC), could be added to screening women for CVD?

Methodology: A prospective cohort of 14 female volunteers, between the ages of 40 and 60 years of age, were consented to sonography of the aorta, collection of demographic data, as well as contributing biometric data. Each volunteer gave informed consent in compliance with The Ohio State University's Institutional Review Board. Volunteers also were provided with a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) release that was signed, before the collection of any data. All sonographic images were analyzed post-examination and aortic calcifications were graded utilizing a modified scoring system, derived from a dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) based grading system.

Results: In this cohort of 14 females, AAC categorical scores ranged from I to IIIB (normal to multiple calcified atheromas). Descriptive statistics demonstrate that it is possible to document AAC on this cohort of women, using sonography. Correlational statistics show a statistically significant association between a volunteer's posterior aortic-IMT (a-IMT) and their ASCVD 10-year risk score.

Conclusion: This study suggests the need for further research on screening techniques to determine women's specific CVD risk, in this age group. Though the preliminary results allude to sonographic measures of a-IMT being a possible CVD screening method in the future, more research data is needed.