Coronary Artery Calcium and Incident Stroke in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) Cohort

In the published literature, coronary artery calcium (CAC) score is a well-documented independent predictor of incident coronary heart disease (CHD) events, including myocardial infarction, death related to cardiovascular disease, and cardiac arrest.22 In addition to the progression of disease in the coronary arteries, CAC has also been associated with the progression of atherosclerotic disease in the cerebrovascular system and has been shown to predict the presence of significant/overt carotid stenosis in an asymptomatic cohort.11 Despite the relationship between carotid stenosis and risk of future stroke, the prognostic value of CAC to predict incident stroke remains unclear. The MESA cohort provides a unique opportunity to study the association between CAC and the risk of incident stroke as the cohort contains over 6800 participants with no known coronary or cerebrovascular disease. The participants have been followed for over 10 years and a wide range of data has been collected including demographics, assessment of cardiovascular risk factors, and adjudication for various clinical outcomes. Using the available MESA participant risk factor and outcome data, the purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationship between CAC score and the risk of incident stroke in a multi-ethnic population free of cerebrovascular disease.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Owen, Ashleigh Anne

• CAC

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/62649

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/62649