A heart scan, also known as a coronary calcium scan or cardiac CT for calcium scoring, is a noninvasive test that helps doctors detect a person’s risk of heart disease or a cardiac event, such as a heart attack or stroke, over the next five to 10 years.

And now the test’s result, called a cardiac calcium score, is helping guide physicians in treating coronary heart disease, thanks to new guidelines issued by the American Heart Association (AHA) and American College of Cardiology (ACC).

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[Transcript]

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[Ricardo Cury, M.D., Director of Cardiac Imaging, Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute]:
A cardiac CT calcium score, it's a very simple test that a patient will be in a CAT scan, so it's less than 10 seconds in the CAT scan machine and we'll be taking pictures of your heart to detect calcified plaque in the coronary arteries.

[video of CAT scan technician and patient performing a CAT scan exam]

[Ricardo Cury, M.D.]: And that is very important because that is an early detection of coronary artery disease. And we are trying to look at those bright spots in a CAT scan and we can detect any calcified plaques in any of the coronary arteries.

[Elliott Elias, M.D., Interventional Echocardiography, Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute]:
What the coronary artery calcium score does is gives us an actual insight into the patient's genetic makeup at this point in time. We can immediately know, with 99% certainty, if patients have coronary artery disease, plaque, or if they don't.

[video of doctor and CAT scan technician interaction and doctor looking at CAT scan results]

[Ricardo Cury, M.D.]: If there is mild, moderate, or severe amount of calcified plaques, it's important information for the clinician because then we can be more aggressive in terms of medications, in terms of modifying the cardiac risk factors, controlling hypertension, diabetes, controlling hypercholesterolemia, avoid and stop smoking, and promoting more exercise and lifestyle changes.

[graphic: Controlling hypertension; Controlling diabetes; Controlling hypercholesterolemia; Avoid and stop smoking; Promoting more exercise]

[video of doctor and CAT scan technician interaction]

[Elliott Elias, M.D.]: What we're trying to do in the coronary calcium realm is to get those patients before they even have any chest pain, before they have a heart attack.

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