Prevalence of coronary artery calcium among asymptomatic men and women in a developing country: Comparison with the USA data

Background: Coronary artery calcium score (CACS) correlates with atherosclerotic burden and predicts cardiac events. Most of the published data have been derived from the USA population. Objective: To study the prevalence of coronary calcium in an asymptomatic population from the eastern Mediterranean region and compare it to data obtained from a large population study in the USA. Results: A total of 1154 asymptomatic men and women from Lebanon underwent EBCT screening because of the presence of one or more CAD risk factors. Mean CACS as well as the percentile cut-points increased consistently with increasing age and, except for those above 74 years of age, were higher in men than women in each age stratum. Age, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes and smoking showed significant associations with CACS in men, while only age and hypercholesterolemia were significantly associated with CACS in women. Among men, the 75th and 90th percentile distributions were comparable to what is observed in developed countries such as the USA. Conclusion: Findings, from this first study in the region, suggest that despite a higher rate of diabetes and smokers in our study population, the CACS distribution in Lebanon is similar to that observed in the USA.