Heart scan

[heartfluttersflyawayplz]

Anyone have the scan of heart where they can tell you how much calcium is in your arteries , I can have a free one next week, but to scared to hear what they find,

Had stress test and echo they were fine, this test will show as little as 15 percent block

What ya think

[heartfluttersflyawayplz]

thanks for info , not sure now i want to have it done lol.    i have read about it and it can give a false neg  and i am already anxiety about the test and if i got that it would make me crazy.if its not going help me than i don't want take the chance of it being false neg and going threw test i don't need lol
  going call my cardio dr see if she thinks i have risk factors and should do it.

i know the test runs 699.00 they doing free to get you in and than offer other scans,

my sister had it she has lots problems most she has diabetes , hers was 800, my dads dad died of harding of the arteries, guess thats why i was thinking of doing it, but if its not going show anything that helps me out or if its not a important test i rather not, i thought it showed if your heart was blocked or id i had to much build up, thanks guys it really helps
   i did have stress test and echo end of last year they said all was good, i do have lots papations and they make me scared

[Occupant]

Just to add to what ed34 said: if your neighbor had a CT-A Scan rather than just a CT-Scan it would show more, but even then the soft plaque might be missed. Also, the last thing I read was that a CT-A Scan would set you back ~$1,300 - no way would they do that for free.

[ed34]

Well it's EBCT (electron beam computed tomography) and works on x-rays. A typical scan runs at 30 frames a second and lasts 30 seconds. Its aim is to pick out higher density elements such as calcium.

[heartfluttersflyawayplz]

its called a ECBT C300

[ed34]

Just to add that there are various types of CT scans for arteries. A calcium scan may not be the type that your neighbour had. In usual CT scans of arteries they inject a radioactive dye which is at much higher dosages than an Angiogram. This shows up all blockages but still not in the details shown by a standard Angiogram. Many hospitals still have older scanners which produce images which are very difficult to analyse.

[ed34]

Yes it does show up calcium, but as I said, this is the last stage. Did you know they had many problems with the procedure because certain ethnic groups were being passed as clear but then having severe heart attacks soon after. Certain ethnic groups were being found to have large fat deposits but not calcified, meaning that they looked clear but were not. So in effect you could have a 90% soft blockage (not calcified) and it will register as 0 calcium. What they have done is produce a chart with ethnic groups and they use this. So for example, if an African American has a score of 5, then the chart could say to state the result as 30. They claim it is fairly close but I prefer more accuracy.