New study increases heart scan's role in predicting risk of heart attack

Healthcare Purchasing News, Feb, 2004

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association could help make heart scans a standard tool in determining the condition of the heart for people of moderate risk. Local cardiologists who have come to trust the heart scan as a reliable indicator of early stage heart disease, welcomed the new study. Dr. Stanley Clark, director of electron beam tomography at Edward Heart Hospital and a member of Midwest Heart Specialists, noted the findings of the study were significant particularly because it found the CT scan to be most effective at predicting heart disease for moderate risk patients.

"Making decisions on how to treat a patient who is not at high risk, but who's not necessarily at low risk, can be difficult," Clark stated. "In fact, an estimated 20 to 30 million people at risk for developing coronary heart disease are not getting proper treatment. With the CT scan, doctors might be able to make faster, more aggressive treatment decisions, which can include medication or just lifestyle changes."