Association of traditional and nontraditional cardiovascular risk factors with coronary artery calcification.

Coronary artery calcification assessed by computed tomography is an emerging marker of coronary atherosclerosis. The authors examined the association of coronary calcium scores with traditional and nontraditional cardiovascular risk factors. In 1999-2000, they measured coronary artery calcium in 360 participants free of known coronary artery disease who had participated in 2 centers of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. They related coronary calcium scores to risk factors measured in 1987-1989. Most traditional risk factors were associated with the coronary calcium score. For example, the multivariately adjusted odds ratio for an elevated score (> or = 100 versus