Carotid calcium scoring may correlate in males with the traditional Framingham epidemiologic risk variables for stroke

BackgroundCoronary calcium scoring is gaining wider use as a marker of coronary heart disease. Our hypothesis is that carotid calcium scoring correlates with the10-year stroke risk.MethodUnenhanced cervical spine CT for trauma patients 50 years and older over a 6-month period were retrospectively collected and subsequently processed to generate calcium scores. The medical records were reviewed, and risk factors necessary for estimation of the 10-year stroke risk were recorded and the 10-year stroke risk was correlated with the calcium score.ResultsThe standard calcium scoring software program (Calcium Scoring CT, Siemens, Erlangen, Germany) used for the coronary artery scoring was able to process the cervical spine CT. The calcium score for the ICA&B correlated with the 10-year stroke risk for males with a Spearman rank correlation value of 0.612. Correlation was not evident for females or the group as a whole.ConclusionThe calcium score of the ICA&B correlates with the10-year stroke risk for males in this small cohort and may prove to be a marker for cerebrovascular events.