Calcium Scans May Be Effective Screening Tool For Heart Disease

A new non-invasive test is the newest screening for identifying heart disease patients who have a risk for heart problems including heart attacks. A scan of the arteries for calcium can be done without having to include many more tests which increases costs for the patient and the insurance company. This scan is performed by detecting plaque in the coronary arteries. It was stated that these scans are not currently covered by private insurance companies because of concerns of low levels of the disease causing non-needed tests to be run and increase in costs. "Over half of patients who suffer heart attacks have no warning that they have heart disease until the heart attack occurs. If we knew the patients were at risk, current treatments could prevent the majority of these unnecessary events. We had to address the concerns about unnecessary testing and costs related to this potentially lifesaving procedure," said Daniel S. Berman, M.D., the study's principal investigator and chief of Cardiac Imaging at Cedars-Sinai's S. Mark Taper Foundation Imaging Center in Los Angeles. This makes much more sense because preventing any further problems early would mean less cost and health problems in the future.

This practice was tested on research patients for five years, tracking levels and change in calcium scores. Most people scored very low scores, which coincided to the relationship between coronary artery calcium scores and subsequent cardiac events. Although, some patients scored high and were given life saving, not to mention heart attack preventative, medical attention.

Recent evidence has shown that the screening in this manner is a better prognosis that the Framingham Risk Score, which is the traditional way of assessing risk based on blood pressure and blood testing.

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