Is a cardiac calcium test worth it?
Table of Contents
Is a cardiac calcium test worth it?
“A calcium scan is very useful if there’s uncertainty about a person’s risk of heart disease or the need for statins,” he says. Recent studies show that findings from a calcium scan can help refine and sometimes reclassify a person’s risk of cardiovascular disease.
How reliable is a calcium score test?
In general, calcium scans are very accurate. Unlike some other imaging tests, the results are unlikely to be either falsely negative (that is, the test indicates no problem when there actually is one) or falsely positive (the test indicates a problem when there isn’t).
Does a calcium test show blocked arteries?
Cardiac computed tomography (CT) for Calcium Scoring uses special x-ray equipment to produce pictures of the coronary arteries to determine if they are blocked or narrowed by the buildup of plaque – an indicator for atherosclerosis or coronary artery disease (CAD).
What is better than a stress test?
Results of a head-to-head comparison study led by Johns Hopkins researchers show that noninvasive CT scans of the heart’s vessels are far better at spotting clogged arteries that can trigger a heart attack than the commonly prescribed exercise stress that most patients with chest pain undergo.
What is a good score on a heart calcium test?
A score of 100 to 300 means moderate plaque deposits. It’s associated with a relatively high risk of a heart attack or other heart disease over the next three to five years. A score greater than 300 is a sign of very high to severe disease and heart attack risk.
Which is better echocardiogram or nuclear stress test?
Although stress echocardiography may have comparable ability to detect coronary artery disease, current data suggest that stress echocardiography detects significantly less jeopardized viable myocardium than stress nuclear myocardial perfusion imaging and consequently fewer patients at risk for cardiac events.