Coronary atherosclerosis burden is not advanced in patients with β-thalassemia despite premature extracardiac atherosclerosis： a coronary artery calcium score and carotid intima-media thickness study

• Published in: Journal of geriatric cardiology : JGC Vol. 13; no. 2; pp. 158 - 162
• Main Authors: Hahalis, George, Zacharioglou, Evangelia, Xanthopoulou, Ioanna, Koniari, Ioanna, Kalogeropoulou, Chistina, Tsota, Irene, Rigopoulou, Aspasia, Diamantopoulos, Athanasios, Gkizas, Vasilios, Davlouros, Periklis, Akinosoglou, Karolina, Leopoulou, Marianna, Gogos, Charalampos, Alexopoulos, Dimitrios
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: China Cardiology Department of Patras University Hospital,Patras,Greece%Radiology Department of Patras University Hospital,Patras,Greece 01.02.2016; Science Press
• Subjects: 冠状动脉粥样硬化; 地中海贫血; 患者; 膜厚度; 计算机断层扫描; 评分; 钙化; 颈动脉; Thalassemia; Calcium score; Coronary artery disease; Atherosclerosis; Carotid intima-media thickness
• ISSN: 1671-5411
• DOI: 10.11909/j.issn.1671-5411.2016.02.006

Background Thalassemic patients demonstrate an increased rate of extracardiae vascular complications and increased carotid wall intima-media thickness （cIMT）, but very low prevalence of coronary artery disease （CAD）. We investigated the atheroma burden by assessing the coronary artery calcium （CAC） and elMT in these patients. Methods We examined 37 patients with β-thalassemia and 150 healthy control volunteers with multi-detector computer tomography （CT） and ultrasonography to determine CAC score and cIMT, respectively. Results Propensity score matching （C-statistic： 0.88; 95% CI： 0.83-0.93） resulted in 27 pairs of patients; severe CAC was observed in 2 （7.4%） and 0 of β-thalassemia patients and healthy volunteers respectively （P = 0.5）. Median calcium score was 0 （0-0） in β-thalassemia patients and 0 （0-4） in healthy volunteers （P = 0.8）. Median intima-media thickness was higher in β-thalassemia patients compared to control group [0.45 （0.06-0.65） vs. 0.062 （0.054-0.086）; P = 0.04]. Conclusions Patients with β-thalassemia in comparison with healthy control subjects exhibit similar CAC score and increased cIMT. Our findings indicate a disparate rate of progression of atherosclerosis between coronary and extracardiac arteries in these patients lending support to the epidemiological evidence.