Who really needs a heart calcium scan?
New research suggests that coronary artery calcium scans are most effective for patients already categorized as borderline or intermediate risk for heart disease. For the general population, the scan provides little additional benefit over standard cardiovascular risk calculators.
Why it matters
This helps prevent unnecessary medical testing and reduces healthcare costs by identifying which patients truly benefit from specific diagnostic procedures.
Coronary artery calcium scans are becoming an increasingly popular way to assess a person's future risk of heart disease. The quick, relatively inexpensive CT test measures calcium buildup in the arteries that supply blood to the heart.
But new research from Northwestern Medicine suggests the scan may provide its greatest benefit to a narrower group of patients than previously assumed.
Researchers followed more than 6,000 adults for 10 years and found that, for the overall study population, adding a coronary artery calcium score provided only a small improvement over PREVENT, the American Heart Association's primary cardiovascular risk calculator.
PREVENT estimates a person's chance of developing cardiovascular disease over the next 10 or 30 years using commonly available health information (such as blood pressure, cholesterol, age, and sex).
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