#Cardiovascular #CaRi-Heart™ #FAI-Score™

Caristo's Groundbreaking FAI-Score™ Technology

In a pivotal development for cardiovascular risk assessment, Caristo Diagnostics unveiled results from a landmark study involving 19,110 participants, published in JAMA Cardiology. This research substantiates the efficacy of Caristo’s CaRi-Heart® FAI-Score™ technology, which measures coronary inflammation, revealing that it carries significant prognostic value beyond traditional markers such as coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring and plaque assessments.

The study's findings expose a pressing concern: individuals with a calcium score of zero, typically deemed low-risk, are at a staggering 14.1 times greater risk for cardiovascular mortality when presenting high levels of coronary inflammation. Furthermore, patients lacking both calcified and non-calcified plaque demonstrated a 10.4x increased risk of death due to cardiovascular causes. The implications of these discoveries are profound, highlighting the urgent need for a paradigm shift in cardiovascular disease management and risk evaluation.

Key Insights from the Study

Lead researcher Professor Charalambos Antoniades from the University of Oxford made a significant observation—many patients once categorized as low-risk were responsible for a substantial portion of the cardiovascular fatalities. Approximately 51% of major cardiovascular incidents and 42% of related deaths transpired among individuals with calcium scores below 100. Notably, nearly half of the patients with a score of zero, who succumbed to cardiovascular events, were reclassified to high or very high-risk categories using the FAI-Score™.

As Professor Antoniades stated, “Unlike calcium and plaque which indicate the effects of atherosclerosis, coronary inflammation is a driving biological mechanism behind the disease.