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On July 17, 2006, the national experts of the Screening for Heart Attack Prevention and Education (SHAPE) Task Force released guidelines for heart disease detection in the American public.
Why is that news? Aren’t there already guidelines in place for heart disease detection?
Shockingly, there are not. There are guidelines for heart disease risk factor assessment, but no set of guidelines that incorporate measures of atherosclerosis itself—a crucial distinction.
"We believe the time has come to replace the traditional, imprecise risk factor approach to individual risk assessment in primary prevention with an approach largely based on noninvasive screening for the disease itself…"
The SHAPE Task Force Report
American Journal of Cardiology, July 17, 2006
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After years of political battling and resistance to CT scanning for coronary calcium scoring, the American Heart Association (AHA) has finally released a formal position paper acknowledging the ability of heart scans to predict heart attacks.
"The majority of published studies have reported that the total amount of coronary calcium (usually expressed as the 'Agatston score') predicts coronary disease events beyond standard risk factors [emphasis ours]. . . These studies demonstrate that coronary artery calcified plaque is both independent of and incremental with respect to traditional risk factors in the prediction of cardiac events."
In essence, the AHA finally agrees that CT heart scans provide information about risk for heart disease that is not revealed by conventional cholesterol testing or other risk predictors.
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"The coronary calcium scan is quantitative. In other words, you get a specific and precise score that tells just how much plaque your have. Recall that, although calcium is being measured, calcium is simply a means to measure total plaque since it consistently occupies 20% of plaque volume."
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"Many centers acquiring 64-slice devices are hospitals. Hospitals as a general rule are not interested in prevention. They are interested in generating more heart procedures like bypass surgery. Shockingly, even though the 64-slice scanners are able to obtain heart scan scores, many of these centers don’t really care about coronary calcium scoring. They only want the angiograms, since these often lead to costly procedures."
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"While not all Track Your Plaque participants can expect zero growth or reduction in heart scan score, the information we provide stacks the odds as heavily as possible in your favor. And we are indeed seeing more and more people obtain plaque regression."
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"The principal goal of the Track Your Plaque program is to keep coronary plaque from growing, even reduce the amount of plaque you have. We track the quantity of hidden plaque through your heart scan score. If after one year of effort your score increases >10%, then adjustments to your program should be considered by you and your doctor. Regardless of your starting score or percentile rank, a rate of plaque growth of more than 10% per year is a red flag for escalating risk. It should be taken seriously and a re-examination of your program is in order."
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I am personally working on this powerful technique for myself. I'm newly on board!
See also The Heart Scan Blog
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Here is a quote from Medical News Today about coronary artery calcium scoring.
"In an article published in the January 14 edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers conclude that there is evidence that CT scans for calcium can play a significant role in predicting cardiac deaths and may assist physicians in making treatment decisions for the millions of people in the middle-range of coronary risk.
The research study done at the South Bay Health Watch at the Research and Education Institute at Harbor-UCLA involved 1461 research volunteers in LA's south bay suburbs and was funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
The South Bay Heart Watch findings support and confirm the recommendations of the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Consensus Group that selected use of CT scanning can assist in evaluating risk and determining appropriate preventative therapy in these persons.
Coronary artery calcium scans measure the amount of calcium buildup in the arteries of the heart. Calcium is one of many substances found in atherosclerotic plaques. The calcium score correlates with the amount and severity of blockages a person has."
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That was written in January 2004. Dr. William R. Davis has put this into practical use to prevent and treat CVD and heart attacks.
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