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John R. Fischer, Senior Reporter | March 25, 2022
"Breast artery calcification is not part of our current risk calculators," she told HCB News. "This research is a wake-up call to the health system that we can no longer silo healthcare by diseases and service lines. Women are less aware of their risk for heart disease compared to breast cancer; here we have the perfect opportunity to address both breast and heart health."
In an accompanying editorial, another group of researchers said that identifying these calcifications could be signs of poor heart health in patients, and that clinicians should, in these cases, encourage lifestyle changes such as exercise and high-quality diets. “It is really important to note that the absence of breast arterial calcification did not translate into low risk, and should not be falsely reassuring when no breast arterial calcification is present. Optimal risk factor control is equally important for all women with and without breast arterial calcification,” said one of the editorial authors, Dr. Sadiya Khan, an assistant professor of medicine in cardiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
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Iribarren says that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s recent recommendation for women between 50 and 74 to get screened every two years may help detect this risk more frequently and earlier, and comes at no extra cost or radiation exposure. Under the guidelines, women between 40 and 49 who show individual risks may also be eligible for mammography and in turn, may be able to find out if they are at increased risk for CVD.
He adds that integrating this information in cardiovascular risk calculators is essential for accurately assessing and addressing CVD risk. “Currently, it is not the standard of care for breast arterial calcification visible on mammograms to be reported. Some radiologists do include this information on their mammography reports, but it’s not required. We hope that our study will encourage an update of the guidelines for reporting breast arterial calcification from routine mammograms.
The study was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health.
The findings were published in
Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.
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