Turn on cookies to sign in
Signing in saves your progress to your Curie account. We can only do that with cookies on — turn them on to continue.
Young adults with high coronary artery calcium scores face serious long-term risks. A new study found that adults aged 30–45 with CAC scores above the 90th percentile had nearly 4x the risk of coronary heart disease death over 30 years compared to those with no CAC. Researchers say the findings could push future guidelines toward more aggressive prevention targets for this group.
A large study using data from the CAC Consortium found that adults aged 30–45 with coronary artery calcium (CAC) scores above the 90th percentile—but no known heart disease—face dramatically higher risks of dying from cardiovascular and coronary heart disease over the next 30 years. Despite having relatively low absolute CAC scores, this group accounted for more than 30% of CVD deaths while representing only about 13% of the study cohort.
Senior author Dr. Michael Blaha (Johns Hopkins) argues the findings support pushing future guidelines to recommend more aggressive LDL targets—potentially below 55 mg/dL—for this highest-risk subgroup, compared to the current guideline threshold of less than 70 mg/dL.
By the Numbers:
Why it matters: Cardiovascular prevention is most effective when started early. This study gives clinicians a concrete tool—CAC scoring in younger adults—to identify who needs more intensive intervention decades before events occur, potentially reshaping future dyslipidemia guidelines.
