Relationship of Metabolic Syndrome to Incident Aortic Valve Calcium and Aortic Valve Calcium Progression: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis
Metabolic syndrome (MetS) has been associated with increased prevalence of aortic valve calcium (AVC) and with increased progression of aortic stenosis. The purpose of this study was to determine whether MetS is associated with increased risks for the development of new ("incident") AVC or for progression of established AVC, as assessed by computed tomography (CT).
The relationships of MetS or its components, as well as of diabetes mellitus (DM) to risks for incident AVC or AVC progression were studied among participants with CT scans performed at baseline and at either Year 2 or Year 3 examinations in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).
Of 5,723 MESA participants meeting criteria for inclusion, 1,674 had MetS by Adult Treatment Panel (ATP) III criteria, while 761 had DM. Among the 5,123 participants without baseline AVC, risks for incident AVC; adjusted for time between scans, age, gender, race/ethnicity, LDL, lipid lowering meds and smoking; were increased significantly for MetS (OR 1.67, 95% CI: 1.21, 2.31) or DM (OR 2.06, 95% CI: 1.39, 3.06). In addition, there was an increase in incident AVC risk with increasing number of MetS components. Similar results were found using the International Diabetes Federation MetS criteria. Among the 600 participants (10.5%) with baseline AVC, neither MetS nor DM was associated with AVC progression.
In the MESA cohort, MetS was associated with a significant increase in incident ("new") AVC, raising the possibility that MetS may be a potential therapeutic target to prevent AVC development.