{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,3]],"date-time":"2026-10-03T05:37:03Z","timestamp":1791005823448,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,6]],"date-time":"2022-10-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1665014400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Cardiovasc. Med."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Calcification of large arteries is a high-risk factor in the development of cardiovascular diseases, however, due to the lack of routine monitoring, the pathology remains severely under-diagnosed and prevalence in the general population is not known. We have developed a set of machine learning methods to quantitate levels of abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) in the UK Biobank imaging cohort and carried out the largest to-date analysis of genetic, biochemical, and epidemiological risk factors associated with the pathology. In a genetic association study, we identified three novel loci associated with AAC (\n                    <jats:italic>FGF9, NAV9<\/jats:italic>\n                    , and\n                    <jats:italic>APOE<\/jats:italic>\n                    ), and replicated a previously reported association at the\n                    <jats:italic>TWIST1\/HDAC9<\/jats:italic>\n                    locus. We find that AAC is a highly prevalent pathology, with ~ 1 in 10 adults above the age of 40 showing significant levels of hydroxyapatite build-up (Kauppila score &amp;gt; 3). Presentation of AAC was strongly predictive of future cardiovascular events including stenosis of precerebral arteries (HR~1.5), myocardial infarction (HR~1.3), ischemic heart disease (HR~1.3), as well as other diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (HR~1.3). Significantly, we find that the risk for myocardial infarction from elevated AAC (HR ~1.4) was comparable to the risk of hypercholesterolemia (HR~1.4), yet most people who develop AAC are not hypercholesterolemic. Furthermore, the overwhelming majority (98%) of individuals who develop pathology do so in the absence of known pre-existing risk conditions such as chronic kidney disease and diabetes (0.6% and 2.7% respectively). Our findings indicate that despite the high cardiovascular risk, calcification of large arteries remains a largely under-diagnosed lethal condition, and there is a clear need for increased awareness and monitoring of the pathology in the general population.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fcvm.2022.1003246","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,6]],"date-time":"2022-10-06T09:17:32Z","timestamp":1665047852000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":46,"title":["Calcification of the abdominal aorta is an under-appreciated cardiovascular disease risk factor in the general population"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Anurag","family":"Sethi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"D. 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