The score of Coronary Arterial Calcium is a test used to detect calcium deposits located in cholesterol plaques or atherosclerotic plaques, of the coronary arteries and thus determine the cardiovascular risk of individuals in the long term.
The traditional method of evaluating cardiovascular risk in asymptomatic individuals is based on the preparation of a probabilistic risk score scale that considers the impact of widely known cardiovascular risk factors smoking, dyslipidemia, diabetes, age, and gender at the population level. Although they are useful for their practicality, they have systematic errors when translating this score to the individual level. The calcium score screening in West Orange, NJ allows greater refinement in the selection of individuals who will be at risk of myocardial infarction or, on the contrary, if the test is negative, who will have an excellent prognosis.
It is well known that the greater the number and extent of coronary atherosclerotic plaques, regardless of the degree of obstruction of the vessel lumen, the risk of cardiological complications increases. The relevance of the calcium score lies in the fact that there is a direct relationship between CAC deposits and the presence and extension of atherosclerotic plaques in the arteries. Therefore, higher coronary calcium also increases the risk of future cardiovascular problems myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, and death. Likewise, it has multiple advantages to mention:
1) to perform it, intravenous contrast is not required;
2) the level of x-rays used is so low that it is considered irrelevant;
3) is far superior to the traditional method of evaluating cardiovascular risk in asymptomatic individuals.
The scan takes only a few minutes. It will be stretched out on a special scanning table. The doctor will put small electrodes on your chest. The electrodes are attached to a monitor that looks at your heart’s activity during the scan. During the test, you will feel the table slide into a ring-shaped scanner as multiple images of your heart are captured. Then, a sophisticated computer program, guided by the radiologist, analyzes the images to find the presence of calcification in the coronary arteries.