Researchers at the University of California, Irvine tested some 6,700 Americans groups - white, black, Chinese and Hispanic, who were followed for an average of 3.8 years. They found that people with moderate amounts of calcium in their arteries had more than seven times greater risk of cardiac heart disease than those without calcium deposits.
A calcium scan using computed tomography (CT) looks for calcification, hardening of the arteries caused by fats and calcium deposits, which causes blood vessels blockage. The calcium scan costs $300 to $600. Other tests for coronary risk such as blood cholesterol and blood pressure readings are much less expensive.
"This is a very practical and effective method for cardiac disease and heart attack prevention," said Dr. Robert Detrano, professor of radiological sciences at UC Irvine and study leader who had proposed the investigation of calcium screening as early as 1989. "One of the factors we need to address is cost; it behooves the imaging industry to bring the cost down and make this procedure available to everyone."
Dr. Diane Bild, deputy director of the division of prevention and population sciences at the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, noted that a calcium scan, since it exposes a person to radiation, also carries some risk. "It would be worth it if the benefit outweighed that risk," she said. "We don't clearly have both sides of that equation established."
The study was published in the March 27 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
