New methods improve coronary artery disease risk assessment

New research presented at the ESC Congress 2026 suggests that integrating polygenic risk scores can significantly improve the assessment of coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with moderate cardiovascular risk. A study involving 584 patients in Catalonia, Spain, found that adding genetic risk information altered clinical risk assessments for 42.6% of participants. Specifically, 11.6% were reclassified to a higher risk category, while 14.9% were moved to a lower risk category.

Following the disclosure of genetic risk, researchers observed improvements in cardiovascular health measures over an 8.5-month period, including a decrease in mean LDL cholesterol and an increase in sustained smoking abstinence.

In a separate study involving the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), researchers found that coronary artery calcium (CAC) scores obtained from nongated chest CT scans can predict cardiovascular risk as effectively as those from ECG-gated scans. This suggests that routine nongated chest CT scans, often performed for other clinical reasons, may serve as a convenient tool for cardiovascular risk stratification without the need for dedicated cardiac CT scans.