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Mammograms Can Help Assess Women's Heart Health As Well
- March 25, 2025
- Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
Mammograms can be used to screen for more than just breast cancer, researchers say.
The X-ray breast scans also can be used to assess calcium deposits in arteries, which is an indicator of heart health, researchers are scheduled to report Monday at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Chicago.
Using artificial intelligence (AI), researchers were able to analyze calcium buildup in the arteries within breast tissue, and link those findings to women’s five-year risk of death, results show.
Women with severe levels of breast arterial calcification had nearly three times the risk of death within five years as those with little to no calcium buildup, researchers report.
“We see an opportunity for women to get screened for cancer and also additionally get a cardiovascular screen from their mammograms,” lead researcher Dr. Theo Dapamede, a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University in Atlanta, said in a news release.
“Our study showed that breast arterial calcification is a good predictor for cardiovascular disease, especially in patients younger than age 60,” Dapamede said. “If we are able to screen and identify these patients early, we can refer them to a cardiologist for further risk assessment.”
Previous studies have shown that women with calcium buildup in their arteries have a 51% higher risk of heart disease and stroke, researchers said in background notes.
Around 40 million mammograms are performed in the U.S. each year, and breast artery calcifications can be seen on the resulting images, showing up as bright pixels on the X-rays, researchers noted.
However, radiologists do not usually analyze or report these calcifications, instead focusing solely on evidence of breast cancer, researchers said.
For this study, researchers trained AI to look for calcified arteries in mammogram images. The AI scanned images and health records for more than 56,000 patients who had a mammogram at Emory between 2013 and 2020.
The AI found that the risk of heart attack, stroke or heart failure increased with breast calcification levels in women younger than 60 and women 60 to 80, but not in women 80 or older.
Results also showed that women with the highest levels of breast arterial calcification had a significantly lower five-year rate of survival without a heart attack, stroke or heart failure.
For example, about 86% of those with the highest levels survived for five years compared with 95% of the lowest levels, researchers said.
That translates to about 2.8 times the risk of death within five years for patients with severe breast arterial calcification, results show.
If the AI receives approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it could be made available to other health care systems to incorporate into their routine mammography programs, researchers said.
They also plan to explore whether AI also could use mammogram imaging to check for other conditions like peripheral artery disease and kidney disease.
Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
More information
The National Cancer Institute has more about mammograms.
SOURCE: American College of Cardiology, news release, March 20, 2025
