Bilateral vessel-outlining carotid artery calcifications in panoramic radiographs: an independent risk marker for vascular events

Table 2 Annual risk for the primary and secondary endpoints

	Controls without CAC (n = 121) Annual risk (n; 95% CI)	Persons with other CAC (n = 92) Annual risk (n; 95% CI)	Persons with bilateral vessel-outlining CACs (n = 25) Annual risk (n; 95% CI)	Log rank test
Primary endpoint^*	2.6% (29; 1.7–3.4%)	4.4% (38; 3.3–5.6%)	7.0% (16; 5.0–9.0%)	< 0.001
Myocardial infarction	0.6% (7; 0.2–1.1%)	1.6% (12; 0.8–2.4%)	0.7% (1; 0.0–2.0%)	0.08
New-onset heart failure	0.7% (8; 0.2–1.1%)	0.7% (7; 0.1–1.2%)	3.2% (7; 1.2–5.2%)	< 0.001
New-onset angina pectoris	0.6% (6; 0.1–1.0%)	0.5% (5; 0.0–1.1%)	0.7% (1; 0.0–2.0%)	0.93
New-onset symptomatic claudication	0.1% (1; 0.0–0.3%)	1.3% (10; 0.5–2.0%)	0.9% (2; 0.0–2.0%)	0.003
Stroke	0.9% (10; 0.4–1.4%)	0.8% (7; 0.2–1.5%)	2.4% (5; 0.5–4.3%)	0.08
Transient ischemic attack	0.4% (5; 0.0–0.7%)	0.9% (7; 0.3–1.6%)	0.4% (1; 0.0–1.3%)	0.38
Arterial revascularization	0.8% (9; 0.3–1.4%)	1.7% (13; 0.9–2.6%)	2.9%(6; 0.9–4.9%)	0.011
Vascular death†	0.2% (1; 0.0–0.7%)	1.0% (9; 0.4–1.7%)	2.2% (5; 0.5–3.9%)	< 0.001
All-cause mortality‡	1.1% (18; 0.5–1.7%)	2.6% (26; 1.7–3.6%)	4.2% (11; 2.2–2.6%)	< 0.001

CAC: Carotid artery calcification (detected on panoramic radiographs)
^*Primary endpoint was the combination of all vascular events in the table, but not all-cause mortality
†Heart failure (n = 5), cardiac arrest (n = 5), myocardial infarction (n = 3), stroke (n = 1) and diabetic ketoacidosis (n = 1). The two none-cardiac deaths occurred in the persons with other CACs group
‡Vascular death (n = 15), cancer (n = 19), respiratory disease (n = 4), infection (n = 4), trauma and intoxication (n = 3), post-operative organ failure (n = 2), non-diabetic metabolic acidosis (n = 1), kidney failure (n = 1) and aortic dissection (n = 1)

ISSN: 1471-2261