Study: EBT Better Predictor of Heart Attacks

CHICAGO, April 3 -- Electron beam tomography (EBT) scoring of coronary calcification is more accurate than conventional risk factor assessment in predicting coronary disease events, according to a study conducted by Alan D. Guerci, M.D., president and CEO of St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, N.Y. The study, which was performed with a GE Medical Systems' EBT scanner, was presented recently at the American College of Cardiology's 52nd Annual Scientific Session in Chicago.

Conventional risk factors only predict about half of all heart attacks, GE Medical Systems said in a press release. These risk factors include family history, abnormal cholesterol, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking and lack of exercise.

"Dr. Guerci's study of over 5,000 people is the first ever to follow a general population of nonsymptomatic patients, prospectively, over a period of several years," the company said. "The study demonstrates that people with a calcium score greater than 100 were at 10 times higher risk compared to those scoring less than this threshold. On average, the calcium score was four times greater in those suffering an event than in those who did not."

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