Coronary Artery Calcium screening is not commonly used for assessing heart-related diseases. A recent study reveals that this method can help in assessing heart attack risks. Also the screening process helps in determining the need for critical heart surgeries like angioplasty or bypass surgery in heart patients.
Coronary Artery Calcium (CAC) is a method to determine the level of calcium in heart arteries through CT scan. People with greater CAC scores are more likely to develop heart diseases.
The present study is based on data collected from 7,000 participants of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). The participants did not have any history of heart disease when the y joined the study between 2000 and 2002. They were assessed on the chances of developing heart diseases and followed for the next 7.1 years on the same.
According to the researchers, the CAC screening provides more accurate results essentially for the low risk people as compared to the traditional test factors.
"Our study, using data from almost 7,000 adult participants in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), shows that coronary artery calcium screening provides an accurate, personalized assessment for those who, by traditional risk factors, are at either high or low risk of a heart attack or death from coronary artery disease," said Khurram Nasir, the senior author of the study, reports medical express.
"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 Roger Blumenthal, M.D., professor of medicine and director of the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center and co-author of the study in the press statement.
The patients who were prescribed strong dosage of aspirin and statin medication actually had the least CAC scores and a moderate lifestyle was enough to address their heart problems, according to the findings of the study published in the latest issue of European heart journal.
"We showed that by using only the traditional risk factors, we miss a significant percentage of individuals at high risk. We may also be over-treating a large number of people who can safely avoid lifelong treatment," said Michael G. Silverman, the lead author of the study, in a statement.
The American Heart Association guidelines have acknowledged the importance of CAC scores in 'reasonably' diagnosing heart diseases in asymptomatic patients who have a 10-20 percent chance of developing heart diseases in the next 10 years.
An earlier study says that CAC scores can be useful in determining heart disease in lower to intermediate risk patients. But further studies are needed to determine the effectiveness of the test.