Overview
- A peer‑reviewed multicenter study of 123,762 women aged 40–79 from Emory and Mayo Clinic found that AI‑quantified breast arterial calcification (BAC) on screening mammograms predicts major adverse cardiovascular events over about seven years of follow‑up.
- Risk rose in a graded fashion with BAC area: mild (>0–10 mm²) HR 1.28, moderate (>10–25 mm²) HR 1.79, and severe (>25 mm²) HR 2.80 for events including heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and all‑cause death.
- BAC remained an independent predictor after adjusting for traditional risk factors and the PREVENT score, and each 1 mm² increase in BAC was linked to an additional 2%–3% higher risk, including in women under 50.
- An accompanying editorial notes BAC reflects medial calcification and vascular ageing—distinct from coronary calcification—and praises the standardized mm² metric as a step toward reproducible thresholds and implementation.
- Authors and commentators urge testing integration into mammography workflows to prompt cardiovascular prevention, while stressing limitations such as missing risk‑factor data and under‑representation of some groups; the team says a clinical trial is being planned to evaluate next steps.