Log in to MyACC
Mammographic Features and Cardiometabolic Disease
Quick Takes
- A higher number of microcalcifications resulted in an increased occurrence of cardiometabolic diseases in participants and their sisters as well as in a higher cardiometabolic mortality in women with pre-existing cardiometabolic diseases.
- Of note, a family history of breast cancer and a breast cancer–specific genetic risk score were generally associated with lower risk for cardiometabolic diseases.
- Automated quantification of microcalcifications and breast density could be useful at no additional cost or radiation to improve cardiometabolic risk projection in women undergoing mammography.
Study Questions:
What is the association of microcalcifications and other mammographic features with cardiometabolic disease risk and mortality?
Methods:
The investigators included 57,867 women from a prospective mammographic screening cohort in Sweden (KARMA) and 49,583 sisters. Cardiometabolic disease diagnoses and mortality and medication were extracted by linkage to Swedish population registries with virtually no missing data. The authors used logistic regression for the phenome-wide association study (PheWAS).
Results:
In the cardiometabolic PheWAS, the investigators found that a higher number of microcalcifications were associated with increased risk for multiple cardiometabolic diseases, particularly in women with pre-existing cardiometabolic diseases. In contrast, dense breasts were associated with a lower incidence of cardiometabolic diseases. Importantly, they observed similar associations in sisters of KARMA women, indicating a potential genetic overlap between mammographic features and cardiometabolic traits. Finally, they observed that the presence of microcalcifications was associated with increased cardiometabolic mortality in women with pre-existing cardiometabolic diseases (hazard ratio, 1.79; 95% confidence interval, 1.24-2.58; p = 0.002), while they did not find such effects in women without cardiometabolic diseases.
Conclusions:
The authors concluded that mammographic features are associated with cardiometabolic risk and mortality.
Perspective:
This study reports that a higher number of microcalcifications resulted in an increased occurrence of cardiometabolic diseases in participants and their sisters as well as in a higher cardiometabolic mortality in women with pre-existing cardiometabolic diseases. In contrast, women with high dense breasts as well as their sisters were less likely to be diagnosed with cardiometabolic diseases. Of note, a family history of breast cancer and a breast cancer–specific genetic risk score were generally associated with lower risk for cardiometabolic diseases. These data suggest that automated quantification of microcalcifications and breast density could be useful at no additional cost or radiation to improve cardiometabolic risk projection in women undergoing mammography.
Clinical Topics: Arrhythmias and Clinical EP, Cardiovascular Care Team, Diabetes and Cardiometabolic Disease, Prevention, Genetic Arrhythmic Conditions
Keywords: Breast Neoplasms, Calcinosis, Genetics, Mammography, Metabolic Syndrome, Myocardial Ischemia, Primary Prevention, Radiation, Risk Factors, Siblings, Women
< Back to Listings
