A long-term study involving 6,667 participants (52.7% women) found that cardiac CT imaging biomarkers can significantly improve the prediction of new-onset heart failure (HF). The study was published in Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. Over a median follow-up of 17.7 years, 426 participants developed HF.

The study measured several cardiac CT parameters, such as left ventricular size indexed (LVSi), and calcification scores of the coronary arteries (CAC), aortic valve (AVC), mitral annulus (MAC), and thoracic aorta (TAC). The research evaluated whether adding these biomarkers could enhance the accuracy of the existing Pooled Cohort equations to the Prevent Heart Failure (PCP-HF) score used to estimate 10-year HF risk.

The analysis revealed that certain biomarkers were strongly predictive of future HF. The hazard ratios were 1.11, 1.06, and 1.17 for log-transformed coronary artery calcium (CAC), log-transformed aortic valve calcification (AVC), and LVSi.