Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Risks
By Mayo Clinic staffHeart scans use electron beam computerized tomography (EBCT) scan techniques to see the calcium in your arteries. This type of scan does have some risks. One EBCT scan of the heart, for instance, could expose you to the same amount of radiation as could up to 25 to 33 chest X-rays. Repeated heart scans over time could expose you to excessive levels of radiation and an increased risk of cancer. Because of the radiation risks, you shouldn't have a heart scan if you're pregnant.
Another type of heart scan uses computerized tomography (CT) angiography to show narrowing of your heart arteries. If you have this procedure, you could have an allergic reaction to the medication that's used during the procedure.
A caution on walk-in heart scan clinics
Certain medical facilities and walk-in centers may advertise heart scans as a quick, easy way to measure your risk of a heart attack. These advertisements often target the worried well - people who worry that they might have a particular disease even if they seem healthy and have no known risk factors. Facilities that promote heart scans for the general public don't require a referral from a doctor. You can walk in off the street and get the scan. However, these scans might not be covered by your insurance.
If you decide to have a heart scan, it may be best to have it done through your primary doctor, since he or she already knows your other risk factors for a heart attack. If you opt for a walk-in scan, be sure to take a copy of the results to your own doctor for follow-up. He or she can help you decide what steps you may need to take improve your heart health and prevent a heart attack.
- Screening for coronary heart disease: Recommendation statement. U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstf/uspsacad.htm. Accessed Oct. 7, 2008.
- Budoff MJ, et al. Assessment of coronary artery disease by cardiac computed tomography: A scientific statement from the American Heart Association Committee on Cardiovascular Imaging and Intervention, Council on Cardiovascular Radiology and Intervention, and Committee on Cardiac Imaging, Council on Clinical Cardiology. Circulation. 2006;114(16):1761-1791.
- Greenland P, et al. ACCF/AHA 2007 clinical expert consensus document on coronary artery calcium scoring by computed tomography in global cardiovascular risk assessment and in evaluation of patients with chest pain. Circulation. 2007;115(3):402-426.
- Coronary calcium scan. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/cscan/cscan_all.html. Accessed Oct. 7, 2008.
- Detrano R, et al. Coronary calcium as a predictor of coronary events in four racial or ethnic groups. New England Journal of Medicine. 2008;358(13):1336-1345.
- Weintraub WS, et al. Predicting cardiovascular events with coronary calcium scoring. New England Journal of Medicine. 2008;358(13):1394-1396.
- Gerber TC. Diagnostic and prognostic implications of coronary artery calcification detected by computed tomography. http://www.uptodate.com/index. Accessed Oct. 10, 2008.
- Yanowitz FG. Screening for coronary heart disease. http://www.uptodate.com/index. Accessed Oct. 10, 2008.
