|
|
Top Reasons to Have an EBT Test
- Family history of premature
heart disease —
Only a heartscan can
determine which family members have early
heart disease. We often find siblings with
dramatically different scan results. We can
now treat people as INDIVIDUALS and leave
those with no plaque alone!
- Preventive interests by
screening noninvasive tests —
Just as one gets a
mammogram to look for unexpected breast
disease, a heartscan is a way to detect
heart disease that could not be predicted
based upon risk factors. A woman is 6 times
more likely to die from heart disease than
from breast cancer.
- Risk factors like high
cholesterol —
Many people with high
cholesterol have no plaque on a heartscan—perhaps
many of them do not need to be on
medications yet. Others have more plaque
than most people their age—perhaps they
would be best treated according to the
guidelines designed for people with heart
disease (for example, statin medications to
get LDL cholesterol below 100).
- Episodes of chest pain that a
doctor believes is unlikely to be heart-related
—
The EBT heartscan can be
very helpful in this situation to help
confirm that the chest pain is unlikely
coronary in origin. We strongly encourage,
however, that any such person work with a
doctor who can use this test along with
other advisable tests and examinations.
- Appropriate concern about heart
disease —
A major purpose of the
heartscan is to determine whether an
individual has much more or much less plaque
than would be expected based upon risk and
age. If one has lots of plaque, the test is
an opportunity to lower risks dramatically.
If there is little or no calcified plaque,
then the scan can provide reassurance that
risks are acceptably low.
|
|
|
|
