"Your heart scan score means nothing"

1. June 2007 William Davis (7)
Charles was visibly confused.

He'd gotten his CT heart scan after hearing one of the local scan center's ads on the radio. His score 2773, obviously in the 99th percentile for any age.

"Do you think the score means anything? My primary doctor said that it was meaningless because it was all in the deep wall of the artery. He said that it has nothing to do with risk for heart attack. As long as I feel good, he says don't do anything."

What exactly did his doctor mean, in the "deep wall of the artery"?

What the doctor is referring to is the fact that some people with a long history (many years) of diabetes or kidney failure (also for many years) tend to develop calcium deposits in the media, or muscular layer of arteries. The media is the tissue thin layer just below the intima, the most inner layer of arteries that we usually associate with atherosclerotic plaque and the layer that is most prone to calcium accumulation that we score on heart scans.

Aging, generally into your late 70s, 80s, and onwards, also increases the likelihood of medial calcification. Lastly, longstanding deficiency of vitamin D encourages medial calcification.

Is there any way to distinguish intimal vs medial calcification on a heart scan? No, there is not. Having read many thousands of CT heart scans, I can tell you that there is no practical way in 2007 to tell the difference.

Then how did this doctor "know" that Charles' calcium was "deep walled" or medial? Simple: He didn't. This was yet another example of ignorance based on old thinking. Unfortunately, he did Charles a serious disservice by dismissing his heart scan score that predicted a 25% per year risk for heart attack.

Interestingly, whether calcium is intimal as in atherosclerotic plaque, or medial, both are strongly associated with risk for heart attack. In other words, if calcium is confined to the intima, heart disease risk is present. If calcium is limited to the media, risk is still present.

In all practicality, the only difference we make of the intima vs. media argument (that is, when the distinction has been made by some other means like intracoronary ultrasound, the test that is truly necessary to distinguish the two patterns) is that medial calcification may be more powerfully related to vitamin D deficiency. Thus, someone with heavy medial calcification may require closer attention to maintaining a perfect year-round blood level of 25-OH-vitamin D3. But that's the only practical difference.
Tags :

Comments (7) -

  • Anonymous

    6/1/2007 5:26:00 PM |

    Will maintaining the Vit D level at the optimal range, reverse the media calcium build up?

    Thanks,

    Marilyn

  • Dr. Davis

    6/1/2007 9:24:00 PM |

    Our emerging experience in the Track Your Plaque program suggests that medial calcification may, in fact, be MORE amenable to regression/reversal.

  • mike V

    1/10/2008 3:31:00 PM |

    Dr Davis:
    I am 72.
    I recently had a CTA scan with "no detectable paque"
    I am also aware of recent research which shows evidence of menaquinone both preventing and reversing calcification.
    Is scanning thought to be less sensitive to medial calcification (as opposed to intimal), and at risk of being 'missed'?

    If so would preventive menaquinone be justified in a 'clean' case like mine?
    Thanks, MikeV

  • Dr. Davis

    1/10/2008 4:25:00 PM |

    Hi, Mike-
    No, the scan quite reliably detects both intimal and medial calcification. Taking K2 is very optional. How about some traditional, fermented cheese? I do not believe that K2 supplementation would yield substantial heart benefits. However, if bone health is in question, that migyht be a reason.

  • mike V

    1/10/2008 4:52:00 PM |

    Thanks, Doc:
    My cheese score is already fairly high.
    I forgot to mention that I have already been taking fish oil, coQ10,vitamin D3, magnesium etc for some years, so I *heartily* endorse your standard recommendations.
    You perform a great community service.  

    mike V

  • buy jeans

    11/3/2010 9:51:22 PM |

    Interestingly, whether calcium is intimal as in atherosclerotic plaque, or medial, both are strongly associated with risk for heart attack. In other words, if calcium is confined to the intima, heart disease risk is present. If calcium is limited to the media, risk is still present.

  • viagra online

    4/19/2011 8:54:39 PM |

    The media is the tissue thin layer just below the main fact because is one of the lasted arteries, the most inner layer of arteries that we usually associate with atherosclerotic plaque and this'll be an important discussion at the universities. Absolutely. 23jj

Add comment

Loading
Coronary arteries aren't what they seem

Coronary arteries aren't what they seem

12. November 2007 William Davis (5)
Why do stress tests so often fail to detect coronary atherosclerotic plaque? Why do even heart catheterizations--the "gold standard"--fail to disclose the full extent of plaque within the walls of coronary arteries?

We owe much of the explanation of these phenomena to Dr. Seymour Glagov, retired professor of pathology at the University of Chicago.



When studying the coronary arteries of people who died, he observed that people commonly had plenty of atherosclerotic plaque lining the artery wall, yet it did not necessarily impinge on the artery "lumen," or the internal path for blood to flow.

The only time the lumen became obstructed by plaque was when either 1) plaque grew to overwhelming levels and was severe and extensive, or 2) when a plaque had "ruptured," meaning its thin covering had been penetrated and eroded by the underlying plaque tissue like a volcano emerging from the surface and erupting.

This groundbreaking observation, now dubbed "the Glagov phenomenon," explains why someone can have a normal stress test on Tuesday but erupt a plaque on Wednesday.

The Glagov phenomenon also explains why heart scans can detect plaque when both stress tests and heart catheterizations fail to do so. Many physicians will then interpret this to mean that the heart scan was wrong. With the Glagov phenomenon in mind, you can see that the heart scan is not wrong, it is simply detecting coronary atherosclerotic plaque at a stage that is not yet detectable by the other methods.

In the illustration, you can see that the lumen of the vessel is maintained--despite the artery on the left having minimal plaque, the artery on the right containing moderate plaque. If either artery were examined by a test that relies on blood flow--stress test or heart catheterization--both would appear normal. But a test that examines the artery wall, such as a heart scan, would readily detect the artery on the right and probably even the artery on the left.




I am very grateful to Dr. Glagov and his insight into this important process. Otherwise, we might still be floundering around trying to understand the apparent discrepances between these tests that simply provide different perspectives on the same problem.
Tags :

Comments (5) -

  • Anonymous

    11/13/2007 1:04:00 AM |

    I saw a new small 2 pound ultrasound machine for detecting plaque in neck arteries just hit the market place.  Article was at: http://www.newstarget.com/022212.html

    It sounds exciting that something like this would be easily accessible - as the author speculates.  Do you think this new small devise will be helpful - if one has plaque in neck arteries does that typically also mean plaque in the heart?

  • Dr. Davis

    11/13/2007 2:54:00 AM |

    Actually, I purchased one of these devices about 7 years ago. The data is reasonably well worked out: carotid ultrasound for a measure called intima-media thickness is a reasonable second choice to coronary plaque measurement. It can be useful to augment information from direct coronary scoring, or when heart scanning is impossible, e.g, some people after bypass surgery.

  • Anonymous

    11/13/2007 7:11:00 PM |

    You've been concentrating a lot on coronary arteries, and the effect of plaque build up. What about the valves of the heart? Can plaque build up on, or otherwise affect them?

  • Dr. Davis

    11/13/2007 10:08:00 PM |

    This blog and the accompanying website, www.trackyourplaque.com, are intended to focus on coronary issues.

    However, I have been seeing aortic valve disease actually improve with vitamin D. Please see my blog post, Valve disease and vitamin D at http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Valve%20disease%20and%20vitamin%20D.

  • buy jeans

    11/3/2010 10:15:10 PM |

    When studying the coronary arteries of people who died, he observed that people commonly had plenty of atherosclerotic plaque lining the artery wall, yet it did not necessarily impinge on the artery "lumen," or the internal path for blood to flow.

Add comment

Loading