🩺 Weekend Wellness Myth

❌ Myth: A CAC scan prevents a heart attack. CAC is sometimes even described as the “mammogram for the heart”

✅ Reality: Not exactly

Everyone knows what a mammogram is. But many people have never heard of CAC.

CAC = coronary artery calcium

It’s a measurement from a CT scan that detects calcified coronary plaque and helps estimate cardiovascular risk.

CAC and mammography have something in common:

Both can detect disease before symptoms appear.

But what happens after detection is very different.

🎀 Mammogram detects → a suspicious finding can lead to additional imaging and biopsy. Confirmed cancer can then be treated.

❤️ CAC measures → calcified coronary plaque and helps estimate cardiovascular risk.

But the CAC scan itself does not treat or remove the plaque.

And CAC doesn't tell us everything about plaque biology, including plaque vulnerability.

I previously described coronary plaque biology like a pimple.

Some pimples are hard to pop.

Others are easier to pop.

Coronary plaques can also differ in stability. When a vulnerable plaque ruptures, it can trigger thrombosis and a heart attack.

Pimples pop = heart attack

CAC is primarily a risk-stratification tool, not a universal screening test for everyone.

The goal is not just to know your CAC score. It’s to act on that information in the context of LDL-C, medical history, smoking status, familial hypercholesterolemia, and family history of premature heart disease.

And regardless of your CAC score, foundational prevention still matters:

🚶 150 min/week of moderate activity

😴 Good sleep hygiene

🚭 Don’t smoke

❤️ Control blood pressure & cholesterol

🍷 Avoid excessive alcohol

I’ll talk more about CAC scores in a future post.

#Cardiology #HeartHealth #PreventiveCardiology #CAC #CoronaryArteryCalcium #HeartDisease #LDL #Cholesterol #Wellness #WeekendWellness