Table 3.
Thoracic aorta calcification parameter values of total MHD patients, MHD patients with and without diabetes
| Characteristic | Total (N = 62) | With diabetes (N = 27) | Without diabetes (N = 35) | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CT | N = 43 | N = 22 | N = 21 | |
| TC (mL) | 9.55(0.70, 23.65) | 11.86(4.74, 32.09) | 5.27(0.14, 18.13) | 0.176 |
| ARC (mL) | 0(0, 0.46) | 0(0, 0.65) | 0(0, 0.39) | 0.709 |
| ATAC (mL) | 0(0, 0.58) | 0(0, 0.69) | 0(0, 0.64) | 0.819 |
| AAC (mL) | 3.65(0.49, 8.08) | 4.32(0.61, 8.28) | 1.70(0.14, 9.21) | 0.670 |
| DTAC (mL) | 5.38(0, 11.71) | 7.05(2.24, 20.29) | 3.31(0, 8.85) | 0.070 |
| Routine chest radiography | N = 24 | N = 6 | N = 18 | |
| AAC(%) | 21.88(1.56, 35.94) | 31.25(25.00, 53.12) | 18.75(0, 28.13) | 0.090 |
Thoracic aorta calcium estimated by computed tomography (CT): calcification volume quantified by extracting the aorta calcium with density ≥ 130 HU from the volume-rendered image under the assistance of semi-automatic software; thoracic aorta was divided into 4 sites, aortic root calcium (ARC), ascending aorta calcium (ATAC), AAC(aortic arch calcium), DTAC(descending thoracic aorta calcium) and TC (total calcium) were all calculated
AAC by routine chest radiography: the circumferences of aortic arch was divided into 16 sites, the number of sectors with calcification was calculated and multiplied by 100 to express the results as a percentage