Vascular calcification in response to pharmacological interventions

Pharmacologic interventions are commonly used to treat patients with cardiovascular disease, and some may have important effects on vascular calcification. In this chapter we briefly review imaging of vascular calcification and then discuss the known effects of commonly used cardiovascular risk reduction medications such as statins on the process of vascular calcification. The pattern and content of plaque calcium is likely due to the degree of responsiveness to intensive risk factor modification. Lipid-lowering therapies such as statins seem to not only reduce lipid content in the arterial wall but also the degree of plaque calcification, with the suggestion that these changes result in more clinically stable disease.