Coronary artery calcium screening determines heart disease risk more accurately
US researchers recommend coronary artery calcium screening (CAC) to determine the actual risk of a heart disease. This presents far more accurate results than the traditional risk assessment of high blood pressure, cholesterol level, diabetes, and smoking habits.
For their study, scientists from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston used data from 7,000 adults.
They were assessed according to risk factors, received a coronary artery calcium scan and were observed over a period of seven years.
“We found that 15 percent of people believed to be at very low risk actually had high coronary artery calcium scores above 100 and were at relatively high risk of a cardiac event over the next seven years”, said co-author, Roger Blumenthal from the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center in Baltimore.
On the other hand, 35 percent of those considered to be at very high risk had no coronary calcium and in succeeding years, rarely had heart attacks or a similar event.
The physicians concluded that traditional methods failed to identify high-risk patients while others were over-treated.
They recommended that coronary artery calcium screening, which is easily carried out by computer tomography, should therefore be used as a priority valuation method.
Ref: European Heart Journal -9th Jan 2014.
SHALL POST MORE ON CAC-SCREENING , soon. Please wait anxiously!
G Mohan.