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Risk-Benefit Assessment of Cardiac CT (According to Dr. Norman Lepor at Westside Medical Imaging)

Posted on: Wednesday, 1 August 2007, 12:03 CDT

Dr. Norman Lepor, a graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, an Associate Clinical Profess of Medicine at the Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles and Associate Director of Cardiovascular Imaging at the internationally acclaimed Westside Medical Imaging in Beverly Hills, California was interviewed by TIME magazine regarding the study published on July 17th, 2007 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. There was a suggestion that there may be a small increase in risk of cancer in patients undergoing high-resolution cardiac CT imaging.

Dr. Lepor acknowledged that with any exposure to x-ray there may be a small increased risk of cancer. However, "the benefits of diagnosing the presence of coronary artery disease before you have a heart attack or sudden cardiac death is far greater than any small increase risk of cancer if Cardiac CT is used in a judicious fashion". If you have at least one of the following cardiac risk factors and you are a male over the age of 40 or female who is either going through menopause or is postmenopausal, this screening exam may be particularly helpful. Cardiac risk factors include any smoking history, diabetes, hypertension, elevated cholesterol, obesity or a family history of cardiovascular disease. Over 500,000 people die of sudden cardiac death due to acute heart disease per year in the United States. If we are going to reduce this number then we will have to be able to determine who these people are by early screening and then initiate important medical and lifestyle modifications that have proven to prevent heart attacks and death". Lepor adds that "64 slice Cardiac CT imaging has the longest track record to be able to define the presence or absence of calcified and non-calcified plaque." Westside Medical Imaging under the guidance of Drs. Norman Lepor and Hooman Madyoon have one of the largest experiences in the world with cardiac CT and their most recent findings were published as the lead article in the American Journal of Cardiology and Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine. Ultimately, "the risk-benefit assessment is in favor of cardiac CT to be used in a judicious fashion," says Lepor.

WMI is a national site of excellence for cardiac and vascular 64-slice CT imaging and has been a pioneer in cardiac CT imaging. WMI has one of the largest experiences in the world with cardiac CT with patients referred from around the world.

For further information about 64-slice cardiac, vascular and body CT imaging as well as other cardiac imaging modalities, please call Westside Medical Imaging at (310) 623-1150 or visit us online at www.westsidemedimaging.com.

Source: Business Wire

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