My brother returned from a calcium scan of his heart a few years ago with the happy news that his coronary arteries were free of hardened plaque that could suggest serious underlying heart disease.

The underlying cause of nearly all heart attacks is clogging of the arteries with cholesterol (atherosclerosis). It starts early in life and by middle age, can be very advanced. The problem is, even ...

Regular readers of my column know I have been very bullish about the Coronary Calcium Scan, also known as a calcium score test or coronary calcium score, as a test for heart disease risk. I take my ...

Cardiac calcium scoring is a convenient, non-invasive way to detect a person’s risk for developing coronary artery disease and identifying if a person is at greater risk for cardiac events such as a ...

Coronary artery calcium (CAC) CT scans are becoming a more commonly used tool to effectively determine a patient’s future risk of heart disease and heart attack. These minimally invasive scans measure ...

For decades, doctors have relied on well-known cardiovascular risk factors to determine how patients should be treated to ward off a heart attack or stroke. These factors include high blood pressure, ...

Preventive cardiologists have a wonderful tool for noninvasively identifying plaque (atherosclerosis) in the arteries to the heart: the coronary artery calcium (CAC) scan. Since 1/3 of Americans die ...

Dear Dr. Roach: I am now 78 years old. My mother’s two brothers died of heart attacks at 55 and 65, so when I was in my 50s, I had a calcium scan of my heart. Since then, I have been taking 10 mg of ...

We are blessed to live in a county with the world’s greatest and most advanced healthcare system. Not only that, we often don’t have to worry about many issues that destroy health, like infectious ...

A heart CT scan uses X-rays to create an image of the heart and blood vessels. Healthcare professionals may also refer to it as cardiac CT angiography. A CT scan is a noninvasive imaging procedure.

Many doctors recommend the heart test to pinpoint which patients would benefit from treatment to reduce their cardiovascular risk. By Jane E. Brody For nearly 45 years, doctors have relied on ...