Abstract: [Abstract] Objective: To determine the relationship between the abdominal aortic calcification and coronary artnary calcification in maintenance hemodialysis patients and to explore the possibility of diagnosing coronary artery calcification (CAC) by abdominal aortic calcification(AAC) score. Methods: Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients were selected. Abdominal lateral plain radiograph and Multislice spiral CT (MSCT) were used to detect the calcification of abdominal aorta and coronary artery respectively. Kauppila score was used to assess the degree of AAC while Agaston score for CAC. Pearson correlation Coefficient was used to analyze the relationship between AAC and CACs. We also assess the accuracy and sensitivity of AAC score in diagnosing coronary artery calcification using receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves. Results: 66 patients were enrolled. Average age, dialysis vintage and Kt/V were 57.65±13.10 years, 95.50 (28.00-143.00) months and 1.61(1.41-1.88) respectively. 30.3% patients were with diabetes mellitus. 72.7% patients were detected abdominal artery calcification with the median AAC of 8.5(0-15.00) while 78.3% patients were detected coronary artery calcification with the median CACs of 400.8 (4.2-1476.23). Correlation analysis showed that AAC were positively related with CACs (r=0.664, P400) were 84.4% and 81.2% respectively. Logistic regression analysis showed that with the increasing of the abdominal aorta calcification, the risk of patients with severe coronary artery calcification are increasing. United AAC，traditional cardiovascular risk factors and CKD-related cardiovascular risk factors have a stronger ability to predict severe coronary artery calcification in maintenance hemodialysis patients Conclusions: There is a significant correlation between abdominal aortic calcification and coronary artery calcification. AAC can well predict the degree of coronary artery calcification in maintenance hemodialysis patients.

Key words: maintenance hemodialysis, vascular calcification, cardiovascular disease