Abstract:
Computed tomography CT, is a diagnostic medical test that produces multiple
images of the inside of the body. CT images provide greater details of soft
tissues and blood vessels. A cardiac CT scan for coronary calcium is a
noninvasive screening study for obtaining information about the presence,
location and extent of calcified plaque in the coronary arteries. This study was
performed in the Radiology department of the Royal Scan center and the
Royal Care International Hospital in Khartoum. The main objective of this
study was to evaluate the Calcium score values in patients with chest pain who
were of different risk factors (hypertension, diabetes and smoking) and
different variation of age and weight. The data were collected from 53
patients, 24 (45.3%) females and 29 (54.7%) males. 28(52.8%) were
hypertensive and 16 (30.1%) had preexisting diabetes mellitus and 12(22.6%)
were smokers. Affected coronary arteries and total calcium scoring were
recorded. The Plaque type was classified into soft, mixed and hard according
to the Radiologist diagnosis. The calcium scored values ranged between 0-
≥803 units. The correlation between the calcium score and risk factor was
found to be significant in hypertensive at p value≤ 0.006with no significant
relation was found in other patient groups. The plaque type shows that the
mixed plaque was significantly correlated with calcium score values at
p≤0.046. No significant correlations were found between increasing of
Calcium Score values and aging and obesity. The study concluded that CT
scan has great value in the diagnosis of patients with chest pain and evaluation
of coronary arteries calcium score values. Although the previous studies
showed reverse results, the researcher attributed the study findings to the
limitation of data sampling of the study which should be wider in future
studies.
