OBJECTIVE: Mammary diseases include a wide spectrum of alterations, ranging from benign tumour, trauma, pain or hypersensitivity of the breast, infections, to metastatic cancer, with distinct clinical manifestations, including breast tenderness, nipple discharge, palpable tumour, or with other tissues involvement. Belonging to the most frequent results of mammogram exam for menopausal women, together with several types of calcification, solid or cystic tumours, mammary fibroadenoma and fibrocystic breast, vascular calcifications are more important considering their general prevalence, approximately of 30%, albeit variable according to ethnicity. In some studies, these benign alterations, easily observable with mammogram exam, were associated with calcifications of coronary arteries and with a higher cardiovascular risk (CVR). For these reasons, mammary vascular calcifications (MVC) have attracted the attention of scientific community as predictive markers of potential cardiovascular events. The aim of this work is to evaluate the correlation between MVC and CVR degree, following the American Heart Association (AHA) scale, in postmenopausal patients attending the Department of Human Reproduction Biology of the Juarez De Mexico Hospital.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Two-hundred six postmenopausal women classified as +2 degree of Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop + 10 scale (STRAW+10) (late post menopause), attending to the Hospital Juarez de Mexico, were selected. Patients have been subjected to bilateral diagnostic mammogram and to lipid profile evaluation. Moreover, for every patient, CVR was evaluated following AHA criteria.

RESULTS: Correlation between CVR and presence of MVC was resulted statistically significative (p<0.05, RR 5.97, OR 19.53, IC 95% 9.31-40.9).

CONCLUSIONS: By this study, a strictly relationship between MVC and a higher CVR emerges clearly.