Sercan ÖZKAÇMAZ, Fatma DURMAZ
Van Medical Journal - 2026;33(4):496-502
Introduction: We aimed to examine the association of hepatic steatosis, age, and gender with coronary artery calcification using Computed Tomography. Materials and Methods: Patients who underwent a Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography examination over a 3-year period in a tertiary center were included. The coronary artery calcification (CAC) score, hepatic attenuation and the Liver/Spleen (L/S) Hounsfield Unit (HU) were calculated for each patient. Patients with (CAC>0) were divided into three subgroups as CAC 1-99, CAC 100-399 and CAC >=400. The groups were compared regarding hepatic attenuation and L/S HU ratio means of statistical analysis. Results: Of the 794 patients included, 325 (41%) had a CAC score >0 and 469 (59%) had a CAC score=0. Of the 325 patients with CAC score > 0, 218 (67.1%) had scores of 1-99, 71 (21.8%) had scores of 100-399 and 36 (11.1%) had scores of >=400. The mean liver HU was significantly higher in patients with a CAC=0 (58.3 +/- 7.3), than in those with CAC>0 (55.6 +/- 8.7) (p<0.001). Also, the L/S ratio was significantly higher in the CAC=0 (1.53 +/- 0.43) than in the CAC >0 (1.48 +/- 0.43) patients (p= 0.029). Significant inverse associations were detected between the CAC score and the liver attenuation (p < 0.001) and between the CAC score and the L/S ratio (p = 0.019). The association between age and mean liver attenuation (p=0.877) and between male gender and mean liver attenuation (p=0.287) were not significant. Liver attenuation demonstrated a modest discrimination ability for predicting CAC presence with an area under the curve of 0.58. Conclusion: Older patients with hepatic steatosis may benefit from further evaluation regarding coronary artery calcifications.
