The correlation between serum calcium levels and angiographic severity of coronary artery disease in patients with acute coronary syndrome

Background: Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is one of the frequent illnesses and causes of mortality worldwide. An easy identifier can assist the physicians to identify a patient with more severe coronary artery disease. This has been investigated using serum calcium, although its correlation with severity observed during angiography remains unclear. This investigation was done to assess the association between serum calcium and the severity of coronary artery disease, determined with the SYNTAX score, among patients with ACS. Methods: We undertook a cross-section study in Cardiology Department of Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad. Non-probability consecutive sampling was used to include 105 patients that had ACS. Coronary disease severity was determined by SYNTAX and serum calcium was measured. Data analysis was done on SPSS, and p value of 0.05 was regarded as being statistically significant. Results: The research entailed 105 patients. Their mean age was 58.94 ± 8.64 years; 70 (66.7%) were men and 35 (33.3%) were women. Mean serum calcium was 8.49 ± 0.44 mg/dL and mean SYNTAX score was 22.22 ± 6.67. The low, intermediate, and high SYNTAX groups included 55 (52.4%), 42 (40.0%), and 8 (7.6%) patients, respectively. Between a lower SYNTAX score and a lower serum calcium level (p<0.001) a correlation was established between them. The correlation of Pearson indicated that there was a moderate negative relationship between serum calcium and SYNTAX score (r = -0.658, p<0.001). Conclusion: In patients with ACS, continuous lower serum calcium levels led to more severe coronary artery disease on the angiography. The simple and inexpensive serum calcium could be an extra marker that will help derive more data on disease severity.