Existing chest scans offer new opportunities for predicting surgical risks (Coronary calcium review doesn’t need a CT scan)

Medical Xpress / NYU Langone Health / Annual Conference of the American College of Cardiology ^ | March 2, 2023 | Daniel Choi, MD et al

[ConservativeMind]

Instead of special heart scans, physicians can use images of the chest captured months earlier for other reasons to estimate patients' risk of heart attack or death during several kinds of major surgeries, a new study shows.

Researchers analyzed existing computed tomography (CT) scans to estimate levels of hardened (calcified) fatty plaque deposits in the heart's three largest blood vessels. They found that patients with greater buildup of this plaque had higher chances of developing serious health issues following surgery.

Major surgeries, which usually involve vital organs, are known to put patients at risk for heart attack, stroke, and death. To determine the risk of such events, physicians frequently recommend additional cardiac tests.

The study authors realized, however, that many patients already have chest images from prior screenings for lung conditions like pneumonia and lung cancer. As a result, the team explored whether physicians who had no formal training in imaging could identify coronary calcium well enough on these preexisting tests to make accurate predictions and skip the additional CT scans.

Members of the team who had no formal training in CT interpretation completed a 90-minute training session in which they learned to estimate coronary calcium severity from the imaging. In the scoring system used in the study, plaque buildup in each of the heart's three major coronary arteries was rated on a three-point scale ranging from "absent" to "severe." The scores were then combined to a final grade ranging from 0 to 9.

According to the results, patients with scores from 0 to 2 had a 4% or lower risk of major adverse cardiac events (MACE); those with scores from 3 to 5 had an 8% risk; and those with scores from 6 to 9 had an 13% risk. The calcium estimates were consistent among the physicians.

[ConservativeMind]

Looking at an X-ray is not rocket science, and even you can do this.

Years ago they were already proving neck calcium plaques from dental X-rays. No doctor should be clueless on identifying calcium on an X-ray.

[ConservativeMind]

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[JohnnyP]

Just go and get the CAC scan. It’s about $150.