Abstract P233: Presence and Gradation of Breast Arterial Calcification: Age and Ethnic Differences in a Cohort of Postmenopausal Women

Breast arterial calcification (BAC) is an emerging marker of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. However, most prior studies relied on traditional film mammography and on the dichotomy of presence/absence of BAC. Furthermore, race/ethnic differences in BAC are not well documented. The Multiethnic Study of Breast Arterial Calcification and Cardiovascular Risk (MINERVA) study recruited 5,040 postmenopausal women after they underwent routine digital screening mammography at one of nine Northern California Kaiser Permanente Centers between 3/21/2013 and 9/1/2015. Study participants were free of CVD at baseline, and underwent an extensive clinic visit for ascertainment of CVD risk factors. Presence and gradation of BAC (calcium mass in mg) on raw images by dedicated software were ascertained by a novel densitometry method at the BAC Reading Center at UC Irvine. Data on BAC and demographics are presented here on the first 2,597 mammograms read. The mean age of the cohort was 66.5 ± 4.6 [range, 60...