CT Calcium Score for Atherosclerosis

Name: CT Calcium Score for Atherosclerosis
Uploaded: 2024-12-25T17:00:35+00:00
Duration: 47 s
Channel: Dr. Charles Mok
Description: Dr. Charles Mok explains CT calcium scoring, which measures hardened plaque in arteries. A zero score in your 30s or 40s means low risk, but an elevated…

25 Dec 2024 · 1 min

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0:47

Dr. Charles Mok explains CT calcium scoring, which measures hardened plaque in arteries. A zero score in your 30s or 40s means low risk, but an elevated score signals prior atherosclerosis and the need to check for soft plaque, the more dangerous kind that grows and may not show up on calcium scans.

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If you took people in their 30s and 40s that were concerned about developing cardiovascular disease and they did a calcium score and it was zero, they're probably in good shape. If you do have an abnormal calcium score, then you really need to go further to see do you have stuff that's worse than calcium, which is soft plaque atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, as it's sometimes referred to. The worst artery is actually when it has soft plaque, which wouldn't be a hardened artery, it wouldn't be calcified. Calcium is repairing those arteries. So if you have a calcium score, it means you've had atherosclerosis for some time, or lipid deposits in your vessel walls for some time, and now it's harden. It can be seen on an X ray, basically, which is a CAT scan, is because calcium is impenetrable like bone. If you have a calcium score that's abnormal, you'll want to know, well, I could have five times that amount of soft plaque. It's actively growing. Or is it just I had a little tiny calcification from minor injury to my arteries? You'd want to know that we want to go further.