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Pathophysiology of Coronary Calcification

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Coronary Radiology

Part of the book series: Medical Radiology ((Med Radiol Diagn Imaging))

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Abstract

In the eighteenth century, just after the initial descriptions of coronary sclerosis, pathologists first noted calcium deposits in the coronary arteries (Blankenhorn 1961; Morgagni 1761, cited by bing 1964). Thebesius considered calcified coronary artery lesions to be the most important feature of coronary sclerosis (Blankenhorn 1961). This was the prevailing view for over 200 years. In 1863 Virchow noticed that the calcification of atherosclerotic lesions in the coronaries was similar to ossification, or bone formation. During the twentieth century attention shifted towards cholesterol metabolism and other factors found to play an essential role in atherogenesis. Calcium deposits were regarded as merely a degenerative byproduct of advanced stages of atherosclerosis (Leary 1936; Blankenhorn 1961; Hamby et al. 1974). Part of the decreased interest may have been due to the poor resolution of radiographic imaging techniques at the time, with a low sensitivity for detecting calcium. Nevertheless, many researchers recognized that noninvasive imaging of coronary calcification might be useful for the identification of asymptomatic subjects at high risk of acute myocardial infarction or sudden cardiac death. Owing to the development of high-resolution techniques such as fluoroscopy and, more recently, electron-beam

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, University Hospital Groningen, P.O. Box 30 001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Rozemarijn Vliegenthart MSc,PhD

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  1. Rozemarijn Vliegenthart MSc,PhD
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, University Hospital of Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Matthijs Oudkerk MD, PhD (Professor) (Professor)

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© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Vliegenthart, R. (2004). Pathophysiology of Coronary Calcification. In: Oudkerk, M. (eds) Coronary Radiology. Medical Radiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-06419-1_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-06419-1_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-06421-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-06419-1

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