Almost two thirds of heart attacks occur in people who do not have significant narrowings identified on a CT coronary angiogram. The process behind build-up of atheroma in the arteries is in part driven by inflammation within the vessels, and inflammation also provokes rupture of plaques within the arteries, which causes heart attacks.
A new analysis developed by Caristo Diagnostics can now be applied to data collected during the CT scan which gives information about the inflammatory status of the arteries, allowing for a risk score to be generated, estimating an individual’s risk of a fatal heart attack in the next eight years. This is called the CaRi-Heart risk score. The risk is calculated by applying a biomarker called the Fat Attentuation Index (FAI).
At the moment this application is only available at the Harley Street Clinic in Marylebone – click here for more information.