Patients with metabolic syndrome, moderate coronary calcium have greater risk of blocke...( LOS ANGELES (May 26 2005 12:01a.m. ED...),Health

LOS ANGELES (May 26, 2005, 12:01a.m. EDT) Conditions such as abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol levels and high blood sugar are problematic enough for people all on their own. But when patients have three of these disorders at the same time, they have what is called the "metabolic syndrome" an increasingly prevalent disorder affecting up to 40 percent of the adult population in the United States frequently leading to diabetes and accelerated heart disease.

Now, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have found that patients with metabolic syndrome and a moderate level of calcium in the coronary arteries had a greater chance of having blockage of those arteries, as detected on a stress imaging test. The findings, reported in the June issue of Diabetes Care, show that analyzing a patient's metabolic profile in relation to their coronary calcium levels will help physicians identify patients who need stress testing so that effective treatment measures can be taken.

"Metabolic syndrome is very similar to diabetes in accelerating heart disease," said Daniel Berman, M.D., the director of Cardiac Imaging at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and senior author of the study. "Importantly, our findings reveal that patients with the metabolic syndrome who had only moderate amounts of calcium in their coronary arteries had a significantly greater chance of having ischemia too little blood flow to the heart during a stress test."

Coronary calcium indicates the presence of atherosclerosis plaque build-up in the arteries surrounding the heart. The amount of coronary calcium in the arteries, called a calcium score, is measured by using computed tomography (CT) scanning to obtain cross-sectional pictures of the heart and surrounding arteries. Even when patients have no symptoms, their coronary calcium score directly correlates with their long-term risk of cardiac events, such as a heart attack, or sudden death. Calcium sco
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Contact: Kelli Hanley
kelli.hanley@cshs.org
310-423-3674
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
26-May-2005

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