CT Heart Scan Risks: 7 Better Ways to Screen for Heart Disease

Kazelyfy

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Feeling the cold.

Today, in

my heart, there's

a delicate

sorrow; outside

a melancholy tries

to forget the

sound of a

manner that

now disappears,

while a young

bird escapes.....

Francesco Sinibaldi

Heart disease

A few years back a company - Imatron marketed a machine that was used to perform EBCT scans of all the major arteries around the heart. This technology and company was stonewalled by the cardiologists in this country whose practices were based on angioplasty. I followed the company and the technology intensively including all the trials. I had no doubt then that EBCT was viable to characterize asymtomatic atheroscleratic plaque.

GE bought the company. I know for a fact that one can still go to some clinics who have these Imatron machines and have an EBCT scan conducted. An EBCT scan in an Imatron machine IS very different than a CT scan in a GE machine!

If I ever was concerned about whether I did or did not have early heart disease ( atheroscleratic plaque depsoits ) I would have an EBCT scan. This takes 15 minutes and is non-invasisve.

What say you?

Radiation Risk

Medical decisions always involve weighing the risks and benefits of a procedure or medication. CT scans that will potentially provide life saving information should not be avoided for fear of an assumed small increased risk of cancer. You can visit www.xrayrisk.com to calculate individual risk based on studies you have had.

In response to Frank of LA: Suggesting that radiologists don't know anything about heart disease is ridiulous. However, a Cardiac CT should be performed by someone who has a firm understanding of imaging techniques and safety, for which Radiologists and not Cardiologists are board certified in. A Cardiac CT also includes images of the entire chest for which a cardiologist is simply not qualifies in evaluating. Ideally the images need to be evaluated by both.

Waist to hip ratio--measuring waist

The link on how to measure waist is a perfect example of why I take these articles with no more than a couple of grains of salt. It says to measure waiste at or just above belly button. NOT ALL people's waists are at that point. A person's waist is where they wear their belts. My belt is well below the belly button. My wife's OTOH, is above the belly button. A person's waist is more accurately defined as the smallest part of the body between the chest and hips.

Off Topic

What does this have to do with Chinese medicine and diabetes?

ct angiogram

I disagree with the study by Dr. Johnson who is a radiologist dicussing heart problems and how to treat them. The one thing a CT does is give you a Calcium score. This has a 99% negative predictive value ( if it zero to 100 there is a 99% chance you do not have Atherosclerosis in your heart. No other test can tell you this including the gold standard angiogram. Knowing just a calcium score requires about the same radiation as a cxr. The persence of calcium also alows you to possibly taylor your therapy to an individual patient.

Radiologist although capable of reading a CTA (CT angiogram) have no Idea how it applies to individual patients or what to do with the data they see. All Invasive Cardiologist do angiograms and know all the possible variations in the coronaries and that is the basis of their training. CTA is a new technology and the imaging of the coronaries is new and although a radiologist knows Ct very few know any thing about Coronaries or heart disease.

DiabetesIintroduced from China

Chinese medicine for the disease pathogenesis more detailed exposition. Although the evidence Xiaoke internal awareness of Chinese medicine also has academic differences, but is generally believed that was mainly due to ferrite deficiency, weak complimented diet, over-eating , emotional disorders, workers want to over-, and lead to kidney yin deficiency, heatLung and stomach; pathogenesis focus heat deficiency, with deficiency-oriented, heat a scalar; disease extension of a long period of time,yin and yang, yin and yang are false; deficiency heat, consumption of liquid blood Jin Zhuo viscosity, blood by blood stagnation Shibuya;yin and Yang, Yangcan also lead to blood stasis within the yang

More:

http://eb2s.net/html/Medical/2009/0204/Diabetes-diagnostic-criteria.html

read the whole story

"...many radiologists aren't taking enough protective measures to reduce radiation exposure."

Radiologists are not the only ones performing this procedure. Read the editorial which admits that the number of CT scanners in cardiology practices has TRIPLED in TWO YEARS!