Since 1921, heart disease has been the leading cause of death in the United States. Over 700,000 Americans die every year because of this silent killer.

Heart disease can be controlled more easily if it’s detected before life-threatening symptoms arise. The key is detecting conditions that are linked to the increased likelihood of a cardiac event as early as possible.

Now a simple imaging test can identify conditions that are linked to the increased likelihood of heart disease. It’s called cardiac scoring. This procedure uses a multi-slice CT scanner to measure the amount of coronary arterial calcification. These deposits are linked to the build up of plaque in the arteries. The amount of calcification that’s detected is converted to a score. That score is compared to norms for others in the patient’s age range and research has found that the cardiac score is predictive of heart disease.

Armed with this information, the patient’s physician can design a customized cardiac risk-reduction program.

The procedure is simple and painless and takes around five minutes to conduct.

The results are read by an Open Advanced MRI board-certified radiologist and then sent directly to your referring physician. Our radiologist will confer with your doctor, if necessary, to ensure that the data is interpreted correctly.

Cardiac scoring is available in two locations in Portland, Tigard and Vancouver, and our Chicago center in Chicagoland.