| How do doctors determine whether their patients have | | | | 60 percent narrowing of arteries, yet this is not picked |
| developed heart problems? In the past, invasive | | | | up on treadmill tests or ECG. |
| angiogram used to be the common and unavoidable | | | | He admitted that cardiac CT has done away the need |
| procedure doctors will employ. But now, more and | | | | for invasive coronary angiograms in his practice. His |
| more doctors are switching to cardiac computed | | | | many years of experience indicate that once patients |
| tomography (CT) scans. | | | | see that their scans show blockages, they usually opt |
| It is known that there are at least 16 different types of | | | | to start on medication right away. A trial of more that |
| CT scanners available nowadays in public and private | | | | 2000 stable heart patients completed in 2006 in the |
| hospitals. But doctors do caution that while these | | | | United States showed that patients do just as well on |
| scanners promise a clear picture of the heart through | | | | aggressive drug therapy alone as they do with |
| non-invasive technology, they are not suitable for all | | | | angioplasty thrown in. |
| heart disease patients. | | | | Medical therapy is not inferior to stenting. Stents are |
| According to one cardiologist, "people with | | | | just devices that are put inside blood vessels during |
| heart-related symptoms like chest pain or shortness of | | | | angioplasty to keep vessels from narrowing again. |
| breath and who have got abnormal or unclear results | | | | Thus, invasive procedures can be prevented. |
| from stress test will benefit from these cardiac CT | | | | Nevertheless, risks and certain side effects do arise |
| scans." | | | | from using cardiac CT scans. |
| Cardiac CT uses X-ray imaging to take images of the | | | | For example, the contrast dye injected into a patient |
| heart timed to the heartbeats to avoid motion blurring. It | | | | may cause an allergic reaction, but this is rare. It can |
| can provide information about the extent of blockages | | | | also compromise kidney function for people who have |
| by detecting the amount of plaque build-up in the | | | | kidney problems. Moreover, the exposure to radiation is |
| arteries. Compared with invasive angiography, the CT | | | | found to be equivalent to 600 chest X-rays. However, |
| coronary angiogram is highly accurate. | | | | technology is improving and a new dual-source CT |
| Electrocardiograms (ECGs) and treadmill tests are not | | | | scanner which takes X-ray images faster than from a |
| very useful for preventing heart attacks, pointed out | | | | single source does reduce the radiation that a patient |
| by another heart specialist. Published studies show that | | | | is exposed to by 50 to 70 percent. |
| two-thirds of heart attacks occur in patients with 40 to | | | | |