P.S. The wife and I did the heart scan last year. ZERO blockages!
It’s an amazing peace of mind to know that at our age we have low risks for heart attack from arterial blockages, and our EKGs came back clean too.
If your scan shows a problem, at least a cardiac specialist can do something about it before you die from it.
Thank you. It’s very kind of you to provide such information even as you’re grieving.
You have my deepest condolences.
Yes, these scans are very affordable. I’m 56 and at 52 I had a scan and my calcium score was zero. My primary care doctor and my cardiologist were very happy. Just get one. You won’t regret it.
Also a carotid artery scan.
Sorry about your brother and especially for those he left behind so suddenly.
I had 2 HA’s in quick order a few years ago. I didn’t even know I had them until my kids forced me to the ER. I was 63, in good shape and hadn’t seen a doctor in 15 years. Now I’m back to feeling good, but I take some amount of drugs and see thee different doc a few times a year.
I am so sorry about your sudden terrible loss! God bless you.
I have to ask though, how this scan is done. CAT or MRI? If it is radiation doctors may not want to put one through that unless it seems warranted.
My condolences and prayers to you and your family on your loss. May your brother rest in peace.
This is an image from the head looking down through the chest cavity, and the white areas shows calcification on an artery that feeds the heart, which is a pretty much a 1:1 ratio of calcium to plaque. Plaque cannot be measured but the calcium involved in plaque can be, so measuring the calcium provides an accurate picture of any plaque that is causing a blockage.
Our condolences for your loss. Than you for your advice.
Was diagnosed with AFIB 5 years ago, so my doctor sent me to a cardiologist to have a stress test.
After the test he said, “You’re good - the tests came back - all with less than 65% blockage”
WHAAAAT!?!
Turns out that’s the benchmark they use, and under 65% is ok.
I could be 0%, I could be 64%. No idea.
You’d think in this day and age they could be a little more precise!
Sorry for your loss. But it’s nice of you to put out the word to others. I have not had the scan to which you refer. Is it a CT Scan? I had an echocardiogram last year, and I’ve done a nuclear stress test.
Thank you for being willing to speak up at a time that must be very difficult for you.
As a former open-heart ICU nurse, I read the title of your post with some skepticism. However, my days working in open-heart were quite a while ago, and I realize the times have changed. I did some independent research on this topic, and you are exactly right.
I learned something very valuable from you today, and only wish this test had been helpful for your brother. I will definitely pass this information forward to my current patients. Thank you again, and know that many people will benefit from your graciousness in sharing this information. Prayers for your family....
Sorry for your loss.........
Sorry for your loss and thank you for the information!
oy. sorry for your loss. and i never go to the doctor.
I am very sorry for your loss. I also admire that you are using a personal tragedy to try and help other people.
I remember reading years ago about the efficacy of calcium scans, so just looked up the current thinking. The American College of Cardiology has a good article: "Coronary Artery Calcium: Score? or No More?," May 20, 2014:
"Coronary calcium rules as a power player in assessing risk. "It's not a risk factor, it's the actual disease," said Robert O. Bonow, MD. "So, it's not surprising that it turns out to be a good predictor of events." For every calcified plaque found in a patient's coronaries, Dr. Bonow said there are many noncalcified plaques, too, such that the calcium burden measured by CAC probably equals about one-fifth of the total atherosclerosis burden.
And how many other tests can make this claim: there are no false positives with CAC scanning and very little measurement error.
In short, no matter which way you slice it, most agree that CAC offers the best discrimination of all the second-tier assessment techniques available—an opinion that is echoed in the recent guidelines. In several studies, CAC provided additional risk stratification when added to traditional risk scores, testing better than C-reactive protein (CRP) and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT).
"It feels to me that we can say pretty definitively that if we were going to line up all the currently available risk markers that are not traditional risk factors, the winner is still CAC," said Dr. Greenland.
Another complaint lobbed against CAC is the lack of a randomized clinical trial showing that its use actually improves outcomes. Several groups, including one headed by Dr. Greenland, have tried to fill this gap, but the necessary trial would be both large and prohibitively expensive. "We tried to get a study like that funded but we estimated we'd need to enroll about 30,000 patients and it would cost between 80 and 100 million dollars to conduct," said Dr. Greenland. "In the current environment, that is unlikely to get funded."
The fact that numerous centers in the United States persist in offering cheap calcium scans without appropriate pre-screening has clearly damaged the test's reputation in the wider cardiology community.
"It's terrible medicine," Dr. Nissen flatly declared, especially when centers use billboard ads to pitch wives on a unique Valentine's Day gift for their husbands' hearts: Get his coronaries scanned for 99 bucks. Think of it as medicine's "blue light special." "It's a loss leader to get people into the cath lab in order to have unnecessary and inappropriate procedures," said Dr. Nissen—an opinion echoed by Dr. Greenland. Although these centers require, by law, a physician's referral, concerns persist that the referrals are rubber stamps and the scans are being massively overused.
Dr. Bonow suggests that cardiologists may be overstating the case. In the early days, CAC scans were being used "in some circles" to drive more cardiovascular imaging and more procedures, but this is not really the case anymore. "With time, I think the field has matured and we realize the value of this test when used properly," he said.
I had a heart attack at age 50 in 2012.
95% blockage in left anterior descending, the “widow maker”.
I was a soccer coach for the kid, raced bicycles, was very active.
But diet and hereditary caught up with me.
You never know! Except for being winded chasing around rugrats, I thought I was in great shape.
My takeaway was you should get checked. It can happen to anyone at any time.