Written by Dr. Christopher Maroules, Director of Cardiac Imaging at SimonMed, this article was published in American Journal of Managed Care on March 2, 2026.
AI-enabled coronary CT angiography reveals total plaque burden beyond calcium scores, improving risk prediction and personalizing cardiovascular prevention.
For decades, cardiovascular prevention has relied heavily on population-based risk scores, and many patients recognize the coronary calcium score. Although calcium scoring remains a valuable screening tool, it tells only part of the story. Many high-risk plaques are noncalcified and therefore invisible to calcium scoring alone, yet they’re strongly associated with future adverse cardiovascular events.1,2
Today, total plaque burden and high-risk plaque features derived from coronary CT angiography (CCTA) have been shown to provide incremental prognostic information, independently predicting future cardiovascular events even after adjustment for traditional risk factors. These advances in CCTA, combined with artificial intelligence (AI)–powered plaque analysis, are allowing us to move beyond risk estimation and toward true personalization of heart care.
