Coronary artery diseaseRelation of Diagonal Ear Lobe Crease to the Presence, Extent, and Severity of Coronary Artery Disease Determined by Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography
Section snippets
Methods
We studied 459 consecutive patients who underwent CT angiography during a 9-month period in 1 medical center. After excluding those with previous coronary artery bypass surgery (n = 23), previous coronary artery stenting (n = 2), or an uninterpretable scan (n = 4), 430 patients formed the study population in which 52% were white, 22% were Hispanic, 10% were Asian, 8% were African-American, and 8% did not respond the question about ethnicity. Indications for undergoing CT angiography were chest
Results
Demographic characteristics of the 430 participants are presented in Table 1. Prevalence of any CAD was 71% and that of significant CAD was 17%. Prevalence of DELC was 71%. Overall interobserver agreement for presence of DELC was 97.4%. There was no difference in prevalence of any chest pain between patients with and without DELC (47% vs 46%, p = 0.844).
Patients with DELC were significantly older (64 ± 12 vs 53 ± 13 years, p <0.001) and had a significantly higher prevalence of hypertension (61%
Discussion
In this cohort of consecutive patients, we found that DELC was independently and significantly associated with the presence, extent, and severity of CAD and had a trend as an additive value above them. We studied coronary arteries using CT angiography, a validated robust tool for noninvasive diagnosis of coronary artery plaque and stenosis, and provide the first report that DELC is associated with the presence, extent, and severity of CAD. Importantly, DELC remained associated with the
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Dr. Shmilovich is a fellow of Save a Heart Foundation, Los Angeles, California and receives a fellowship grant from the American Physician Fellowship for Medicine in Israel, Boston, Massachusetts.