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Calcified arteries- what is the significance? – By Dr Harold Gunatillake Calcium deposition in arteries shows how much fatty build-up or plaque formation. Plaques, especially in your coronary arteries, are the leading cause of heart attacks, and when a piece of these plaques breaks off, a blood clot can form around it, blocking the flow of blood, and the heart muscles will be deprived of oxygen. Coronary artery calcification is a buildup of calcium that can predict your cardiovascular risk, as all plaques get calcified with time. Cardiologist depends on ECG tracings during exercise on a treadmill machine to check on the degree of blockage of coronary vessels, shown by the ST segment changes. The presence of calcified plaques is visible on CT scans, and the number of such spots can be counted and given as a coronary calcium score. This is referred to as the calcium score, which measures ...