Why Get a Second Heart Scan?
The only heart scan more important than your first heart scan is your second heart scan
Dr. Bill Blanchet
Your First Heart Scan tells if You Have Heart Disease.
This is the best way there is to find out. An EBT heart scan is 10 times more predictive of heart attack risk than all conventional risk factors combined.
Your Second Heart Scan Tells if Your Treatment for Stopping Heart Disease is Working
If your Calcium Volume Score from your previous heart scan has not increased by more than 14% in 12 months, your plaque is considered stable and you have dramatically reduce your risk of having a heart attack regardless of your calcium score or your cholesterol numbers.
What Are the 2 Scores
Calcium Volume: This is your score for you. It is used as your baseline. This is the score that we track to determine regression, stability, or progression of your heart disease.
Agatston Score: A calculated score showing where you stand in relation to others in your age/gender group.
Studies have proven that for individuals with discernible plaque, the situation worsens yearly by about 35% – 40% on average if left untreated. However, in most cases, when treated, the process of atherosclerosis or the growth of new plaque can be slowed, stabilized or even reversed. The definition of a stable calcium score is “a score than does not increase by more than 15% in one year.”
Should I Repeat the Heart Scan?
In general, if your scan results are higher than zero, a repeat scan may be recommended at one year. It is the only way to monitor whether there is progression (worsening), stabilization or regression (improvement) in your coronary situation.
Use the Same Type of Scanner!
Note: ALWAYS use the same type of scanner for repeat heartscans. If your first scan was on an EBT scanner, it would be almost impossible for us to make any judgments if your second scan was on a mechanical spiral (helical) scanner…so beware of the differences.
Only an EBT scan has the accuracy to be able to compare scans on a yearly basis. 64-slice or helical scans have so much scan variability, that one must wait about 4 years between scans to get any meaningful comparison data.
