Detecting Your Risk for a Heart Attack – Video

As part of American Heart Month, you may be thinking about your health and whether you’re at risk for a heart attack. There’s a safe test that can give you an answer, yet few people know about the procedure, called a Calcium Score CT Scan, and how readily available it is.

In about two minutes, the CT Scan machine uses X-rays to create images of your heart and the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart. Calcium detected in the heart arteries is a marker for plaque in the arteries, which is coronary artery disease.

You may want to consider having a Calcium Score CT Scan if you’re young to middle-aged and have risk factors such as:

• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Tobacco use
• A family history of heart disease

Learn more in a special video report.

Other heart attack risk factors include:

• Family history of heart attack
• Lack of physical activity.
• Obesity
• Stress
• Illegal drug use.
• A history of preeclampsia (the condition causes high blood pressure during pregnancy and increased the lifetime risk of heart disease)
• A history of an autoimmune condition, such as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus

Your health care professional can discuss your heart attack risks and how to reduce them.