Took a carotid ultrasound!

Honest question did you get an actual carotid ultrasound ordered by a physician to be interpreted by a physician or did you go onto some random community screening bus where they do a half assed job of something.

Nurse here....sounds like the doc told the nurse to recommend the Aspirin. Furthermore, our healthcare system is set up to treat you once something is "bad enough" or an "event" happens. Sorry, but that's not good enough! There is just no sense of urgency.

I always advocate for my own health. Think diet, exercise, lifestyle changes that can improve &/or prevent plaque build up. One of the things that drives it is inflammation. I wish our healthcare system focused on healthy lifestyle and prevention versus waiting for something to happen!

Absolutely contact your doctor and tell him/her your concerns. Good luck!

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I always advocate for my own health. Think diet, exercise, lifestyle changes that can improve &/or prevent plaque build up

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You left out maybe the most important one, genetics


I assume the OP is talking about a calcium score or is this something different?


Both my dad and his brother had quadruple bypass by 40


I was in the best shape of my life when I turned 40. Under 10% body fat, half marathons all the time, former athlete and did weights and yoga 6x a week. Diet was also on point with minimal red meat

I had a 1300 calcium score and my cardiologist did a heart catheter to see it closer and luckily it’s all spread out evenly over the walls and there was no build up. He said had I not been in such great shape, I probably would’ve been just like my dad and uncle


I can’t stress enough how important it is to get your heart checked and get a calcium score as young as possible.

Peter Attia talks about this in his book and wonders why we don’t get everyone’s heart checked at their yearly physical starting from birth. America is big on treating issues once they are discovered versus testing and making sure they never happen

interesting to see this thread. I had one of these a couple years ago from a real physician since I worked in the medical software field at that time and they were a client I was visiting. Being in my late 50s at the time she was stunned by how "clean" my scan looked. More than once she ask if I was a vegetarian - not hardly!

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Why do you need a doctor to tell you not to stuff your face full of Twinkies and Coke?

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Because doctors are about health and should be giving healthy advice versus a dispensary for drugs with multiple side effects.

OR, how about our public health agencies push "not to stuff your face full of Twinkies and Coke" instead of just relying on the doctor, who patients see once/twice a year for 15 minutes at a time.

I mean, why can't we have a robust, healthy system based on prevention and "sound advice" where patients still take responsibility for themselves....

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the Cleerly

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The Cleerly testing procedure is slowly catching on.
The FDA cleared it only a little over a year ago.
The only places that I have found the testing offered is in Louisiana is Shreveport and at a location in somewhere southwest La.

The inventor of the coronary calcium score, Dr. Arthur Agatson and founder of the famous South Beach Diet program, seems to be very positive about the Cleerly testing method.

If you have the time and money, you might want to seek out a clinic that offers the Cleery testing method.

If that is not possible, get the coronary calcium score done. Many MDs can refer you to a good CAC testing facility.

To the OP, a good MD should be able to use a stethoscope to pick up any irregular blood flow artery issues.

Definitely don't want to bypass thorough testing though. The carotid ultrasound is a very easy, non-invasive test that takes just a few minutes.

Also get an ankle-brachial index test to look for PAD(peripheral artery disease ).
Its a very simple test that takes just a few minutes.

Get or request advanced lipid testing.
Most standard lipid test just focus on triglycerides, LDLs & HDLs.
Medical research is revealing other markers that can lead to coronary diseases, heart attacks and stroes.
The 'widow maker' heart attack has been linked to LipoA(Lipoprotein A) that is a must to checked.
Also ApoB(Apolipoproten B) needs to be checked.

More and more MDs are recognizing the importance of advanced lipid test in detecting and preventing heart, artery issues.

BTW, I am NOT a medical professional, just another baw looking to keep healthy.

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I live far away, but had mine done in Houston during a long weekend I was there for another event. More and more, I think the CACs are proving useless - or at the very least, simply not enough info. It's very easy to have a low/zero CAC and yet have disease clearly show up on the Cleerly.

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I can't clarify the validity of whether the Cleery method is superior to the traditional CAC to that has been used world-wide by cardiologist to determine plaque build up in and around the heart.

What I have been reading on the Cleery method is that it still uses the basic CT scan but uses AI software to interpret the results.

From their website:

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What is a CCTA?

A CCTA is a heart-specific diagnostic imaging scan that helps determine if plaque buildup has narrowed the coronary arteries, the blood vessels that supply the heart, which can lead to coronary artery disease (CAD). Computed tomography is more commonly known as a CT or CAT scan. Like traditional x-rays, it produces multiple images or pictures of the inside of the body.

What is a Cleerly analysis?

The Cleerly coronary analysis is a thorough evaluation of the presence, amount, and type of plaque in the heart’s arteries based on a CCTA study. Images captured in the CCTA scan are processed by Cleerly software - a set of artificial intelligence-based algorithms - and translated into measurements and reports for review by the patient’s physician. The results of the Cleerly analysis give a patient and their physician a comprehensive understanding of the patient’s current state of cardiovascular disease for reference in the patient’s ongoing heart health and treatment.

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So take it for it is. Its still a very young technology and will surely advance to give more accurate diagnosis'.

LINK

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I felt this. At 40 3 years ago i was eating great working out. Active. In good shape. One day after working out was having heart paps. Ended up seeing a cardio. He just did an ekg and echo. All perfect. I suggested calcium score, he didnt think i needed it. Younger and good shape. I wanted it anyway. Came back at 426 and he was like welll maybe we need to do a nuclear stress test. Ended up doing that, and passed no issues. Ended up just putting me on low dose statin and baby asprin daily.

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I mean, you have heart disease, so I wouldn't just ignore it. The statin obviously makes sense, but do you know which vessels are diseased, which percentage blockage you have and if it is calcified or non-calcified?

Even if you "passed" a NST, that doesn't mean it's not a future problem.

Pretty good piece about CAC:

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The typical example for a CAC scan is a middle-aged person with an elevated cholesterol level. This person may have a 10-year risk of 6%. The doctor suggests a statin. But the patient is unsure. A CAC scan may help this man or woman decide. If the CAC score is zero, proponents of CAC would say, he/she could avoid statins for now. If the CAC score is high, proponents would argue that the 10-year risk is now high enough to warrant statins.

That is it. That is all that CAC scans are for. Nothing else. Nada.

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LINK

FWIW, my doc thinks they will be obsolete in less than 10 years. Medicare is already starting to cover Cleerly, with insurance likely to follow suit in a couple of years.