Quick and Non-invasive Screening for Coronary Artery Disease @Universal - Dr. Imran Khan - HOD, Department of Radiology

THE IMAGE OF CT CALCIUM SCORING ON SYNGOVIA

• Calcifications in left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) are depicted in yellow.
• Calcifications in left circumflex coronary artery (CX) are depicted in blue.
• Calcifications in right coronary artery (RCA) are depicted in red.
• Pink dots are noncoronary regions.

The Calcium Score table

Patients who are in the 75th percentile and above merit aggressive risk factor modification and consideration for early investigation with stress testing and possible angiography if symptomatic.

Coronary calcium scoring by CT scan

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death and accounts for more deaths than all cancers combined. 

Coronary calcium scoring by CT scan has emerged as an excellent quick and non-invasive screening tool for the detection of coronary artery disease.

Early preclinical detection allows for lifestyle changes and therapeutic measures to prevent and/or delay future hard cardiovascular events.

Calcification of the coronary arteries is caused by atherosclerosis and the amount of calcification increases with total plaque burden.

A positive score indicates the presence of atherosclerosis and thus CAD. Increasing score is related to increasing risk.

Patients who are in the 75th percentile and above merit aggressive risk factor modification and consideration for early investigation with stress testing and possible angiography if symptomatic.

A negative CT makes presence of plaque very unlikely and occurs in the majority of patients who have normal arteries. A negative test is consistent with very low risk in next 2-5 years.