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Heart Hospital of New Mexico Offers New Early Detection Scan for Heart Disease:HeartScan CT Provides Early Warning of Heart Trouble

7/5/2000 - Albuquerque, New Mexico: The Heart Hospital of New Mexico has introduced a new program, HeartScan CT, to help prevent patients from becoming one of the more than 4,000 New Mexicans lost to heart disease every year.

HeartScan CT is an easy, fast and non-invasive technique that uses the advanced technology of Computerized Tomography (CT) to capture images of the heart at rest. These high-resolution images allow a physician to detect even a minimal amount of calcium build-up in the coronary arteries - an indicator of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. Traditional diagnostic tests may suggest the probability of the condition, but cannot determine whether the disease is actually present.

The physicians at the hospital are excited about this new tool that could save lives by giving patients an invaluable early warning

"For about 40 percent of people, a heart attack is their first indication of heart disease. The HeartScan CT gives doctors and patients important information before the patient's arteries are blocked or nearly blocked," said Howard Zeman, MD, of the New Mexico Heart Institute and the Heart Hospital of New Mexico.

The HeartScan CT gives physicians accurate information about the precise levels of calcium in the patient's arteries. Also, it costs less than most other cardiac tests.

Men over the age of 30 and women over the age of 40 with one or more of the key risk factors for heart disease - family history of the disease, smoking, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol or high blood pressure - could receive valuable information about their risk of heart attack by undergoing a HeartScan CT.

"I think the real value of the HeartScan will be to give patients new information and a strong motivation to reduce their risk levels and prevent a serious problem," said Dr. Zeman.

For more information, or to schedule a HeartScan CT, please call (505) 724-2295.

The Heart Hospital of New Mexico, an entire hospital fighting heart disease, was opened in 1999.

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