Vaskulárna medicína 1/2011

Mediocalcinosis – the marker of high cardiovascular risk

Mediocalcinosis represents a disease of the muscular type of arteries characterized by progredient calcification of the media. It is most frequent due to diabetes mellitus, chronic renal insufficiency and accompanying secondary hyperparathyreoidism. Decreased anklebrachial pressure index (ABI) is a marker of increased cardiovascular risk. But also values of ABI over 1.4 in mediocalcinosis are connected with increased mortality from cardiovascular reasons. In a group of 22 persons with mediocalcinosis we detected with Holter ECG longterm monitoring frequent occurrence of cardiac arrhythmias and myocardial ischemia (91 %). Only 2 persons (9 %) had normal Holter ECG records. Our results confirmed clinical importance of ABI estimation, whereby Holter ECG monitoring provides us important information for improvement of their management.

Keywords: mediocalcinosis, ankle-brachial pressure index, ABI, Holter ECG monitoring, cardiac arrhythmias, cardiovascular risk.