Walking performance is associated with coronary artery calcification in very old adults

Abstract

Background: Coronary artery calcification (CAC) scores have good predictive value for atherosclerosis-related outcomes in the geriatric population. The low availability of cardiac computed tomography is an obstacle to assess CAC in clinical practice. Thus, clinical signs with a good degree of association with CAC can help to estimate cardiovascular risk, particularly in low-income populations.

Objectives: To assess whether clinical, biochemical and functional measures explain the CAC scores in older individuals.

Methods: We characterized 89 non-institutionalized older volunteers (≥ 80 years old) by means of a comprehensive biochemical and anthropometric evaluation along with assessments of CAC scores determined by computerized tomography, and tested their association with walking speed test (WS) and handgrip strength (HS) performance.

Results: Analyses of variance showed that body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) differed significantly (p ≤ 0.01 and p ≤ 0.03; respectively) across quartiles, so that subsequent tests were adjusted for anthropometry. ANCOVA revealed that the two lower quartiles of CAC had better performance in WS compared to the third and fourth quartiles (p ≤ 0.04). Multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that WS scores exhibit enough power (R² = 0.379, p = 0.05) to explain CAC scores. There were no significant differences for HS between quartiles (p = 0.87).

Conclusion: WS is associated and explain CAC scores, and may be useful to stratify atherosclerotic burden in apparently healthy very old individuals regardless of body composition.

Keywords: Aged; Cardiovascular diseases; Exercise performance; Walking speed test.