Physicians' Academy for Cardiovascular Education

Higher frequency of coronary atherosclerotic plaques in patients with genetically confirmed FH

An age-matched computed tomography angiographic study of coronary atherosclerotic plaques in patients with familial hypercholesterolaemia

Literature - Pang J, Abraham A, Vargas-García C et al., - Atherosclerosis. 2020. doi:10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2020.03.001.

Introduction and methods

Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is characterized by elevated LDL-c levels and a high risk of premature coronary artery disease (CAD) [1]. There is, however, a wide variation of CAD prevalence in FH patients [2,3]. Coronary events in FH patients could potentially be predicted by coronary artery stenoses and coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring on cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) [4,5]. CCTA and CAC scoring may therefore play a role in risk assessment in FH patients [2, 6-8]. The present study investigated the frequency and distribution of coronary artery plaques in asymptomatic adult patients with a presumptive phenotypic FH diagnosis with and without genetically confirmed heterozygous FH.

Patients with asymptomatic phenotypic FH (Dutch Lipid Clinic Network [DLCN] category score of at least 3) were included in this aged-matched case-control study. Patients were managed according to expert guidelines [9], consented to genetic testing, and underwent CCTA and CAC scoring. From the total group of patients, 104 patients with genetically confirmed heterozygous FH (mutation-positive cases, M+) were randomly aged-matched 1:1 with 104 patients without a FH-causing mutation (mutation-negative controls, M-). Mean age was 49.9±10.4 years and 45.2% were male. The Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography guidelines were used to define calcific, non-calcific and mixed plaques [10]. CAC scores were semi-automatically calculated by the Agatston method [11]. The segment stenosis score (SSS) was calculated as the sum of scores attributed to each of the 19 coronary segments (0: no stenosis, 1: mild stenosis [<50%], 2: moderate stenosis [50-70%], 3: severe stenosis [>70%]) [12].

Main results

Conclusion

Among asymptomatic adult patients with a presumptive phenotypic FH diagnosis, patients with a genetically confirmed diagnosis of FH had a higher frequency and severity of coronary atherosclerotic plaques, compared to patients without a FH-causing mutation.

References

Show references

Find this article online at Atherosclerosis.

Share this page with your colleagues and friends: