Background: The relationship of conventional cardiovascular risk factors (age, gender, ethnicity, diabetes, dyslipidaemia, hypertension, obesity, exercise, and the number of risk factors) to coronary artery calcification (CAC) presence and extent has never before been assessed in a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Methods: We included only English language studies that assessed at least three conventional risk factors apart from age, gender, and ethnicity, but excluded studies in which all patients had another confirmed condition such as renal disease.
Results: In total, 10 studies, comprising 15,769 patients, were investigated in the systematic review and seven studies, comprising 12,682 patients, were included in the meta-analysis, which demonstrated the importance of diabetes and hypertension as predictors of CAC presence and extent, with age also predicting CAC presence. Male gender, dyslipidaemia, family history of coronary artery disease, obesity, and smoking were overall not predictive of either CAC presence or extent, despite dyslipidaemia being a key risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD).
Conclusion: Diabetes and hypertension consistently predict the presence and extent of CAC in symptomatic patients.
Keywords: coronary calcification; meta-analysis; risk factors; systematic review.