Calcium score

Most heart attacks cannot be predicted - although conventional risk factors (which can be estimated by your GP using a calculator) can be used as a rough guide of risk, many heart attacks happen in people who have low-medium risk using these calculators.

An Exercise Stress ECG is useful to help detect coronary narrowing - but in over half of heart attacks- there is no preceding narrowing thus in these people the stress test would have been normal and in general Stress ECGs carry low predictive value for screening asymptomatic people at risk of heart attack

Rationale for having a Calcium Score test

It is known that fat (atheroma) can builds up in the wall of coronary arteries coronary many years before heart symptoms develop.

Coronary atheroma is very often speckled with tiny deposits of calcification - which can be seen and quantified using  fast CT

1.Calcium Scoring CT is a quick, easy and convenient method of evaluating calcium in the coronary arteries

2.Calcium scoring can indicate your risk of coronary heart disease BEFORE there is any damage done.

3.There are no injections or side effects

A single cut from a multislice CT scan is shown below. The Aorta (Ao) gives rise to the main left coronary artery which divides into left anterior descending artery (LAD) and Left circumflex vessel (Lcx).

A small deposit of calcification (white) close to the origin of the LAD indicates some coronary atherosclerosis 

Coronary artery calcium scoring (CT heart scan) is a highly advanced, non-invasive test that uses a high-speed CT scanner and computer software to detect and measure calcium build-up in arteries that carry blood to the heart. This build-up is also referred to as arteriosclerosis or “hardening of the arteries.”

Based on an objective assessment of the size and the density of calcified plaque in your arteries, you will receive a calcium “score.”  This score provides a general indication of the degree to which your coronary arteries have been narrowed.  A high score usually indicates a greater plaque load and an increased risk of heart attack.

The Surrey Cardiovascular Clinic offers Calcium score CT using Multisclice CT in Guildford, Haslemere and Weybridge. The scan costs £350 and includes a Cardiologist report. Please contact us on 01483 467100 to register or complete an online enquiry form

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