Coronary Artery Calcium Scoring in Atherosclerosis

Plasma was collected from whole venous blood (K₂EDTA) obtained from participant donors following informed written consent. Experiments were performed under institutional review board approved protocols from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (IRB#170046 and #101615). Participants underwent noncontrast coronary CT examination to identify the presence of calcified coronary atheroma and measure the CAC score (68 (link), 69 (link)). Women who were pregnant or potentially pregnant were excluded from the CT examination. Image acquisition was performed using a 64-slice multi-detector CT scanner (Brilliance 64, Philips Healthcare). Technical parameters included 120 KVp, 150 mAs, and ECG-gating of image acquisition in late diastole. CAC was measured on 3.0 mm thick slices using the Food and Drug Administration–approved calcium scoring software (Philips IntelliSpace Portal, Philips Healthcare) and reported as the Agatston score (70 (link)) for minimum lesion volume of 0.5 mm3 and an attenuation threshold of ≥130 Hounsfield units. Subject characteristics are presented in Table S1. Plasma lipoprotein cholesterol and plasma triglyceride levels were quantified using an Ace Axcel clinical chemistry system (Alfa Wassermann). These studies abide by the Declaration of Helsinki principles.