High Coronary Calcium Score: How do others feel emotionally?

How do you get a calcium score? Is it part of blood work?

No, it’s a CT scan of your coronary arteries.

Take a statin and count your blessings!

A year ago I had my first CAC CT scan with a resulting score of 1560. This year I had a repeat scan done at a different facility. The score is 250. What to do now? The original radiology group is no longer in business so I can't get a repeat there. My PCP is asking the cardiologist who read the most recent scan to review for discrepancies. Even if the 2nd scan is correct, it likely means that I will need to be on a statin. Any suggestions?

Stress test came out fine.

Tim1028 that is an amazing difference; like they were doing the test on two different people. Please let us know if you figure out why there was such a great discrepancy between the two tests.

Bluest of You mention taking high-dose CoQ10 along with statins. What do you consider high dose?

I'm taking 200mg of ubiquinol. Not super high, but high enough for statin balance.

Hello everyone, first time poster here with a similar tale. First I want to take a moment and thank everyone on this thread for helping me get through this past few stressful weeks. Reading your experiences was extremely educational and emotionally helpful to me.

In 2007, at age 41 (I'm 53 now) I had a cardio cath done because I had some strange throat sensations and elevated troponin levels. The cath showed only minor calcification. My cardiologist at the time called them bumps n grooves. They were not sure how to diagnose me, but I was put on 10 MG of atorvastatin and aspirin therapy.

I have also been diagnosed (at age 14) with Mitral Valve Prolapse. As a result, I see a cardiologist bi-yearly for EKG, and Echocardiogram. Over the years, the murmur associated with my MVP has gotten really hard to hear, and I only have mild regurgitation.

In October, at my regular cardiologist appointment, I mentioned that I had a family history of atherosclerosis, and that my father and his father and his father have all had heart attacks. My father is still alive, but had double bypass. She said that since I had a negative EKG stress test in April of 2017 with no symptoms, there was no need for additional testing. She said that I could get a cardiac CT scan to see what my calcification score was. If it was abnormal, then she would do additional testing.

A month later, I had the test, and my score was 2744. Needless to say, I was stunned by the news. The first thing I did was try to educate myself by looking on the web for high calcification scores. I found this thread, and was intrigued/encouraged by the posters who said that their high scores were due to calcium within the walls of their coronary arteries. I kind of clung to that hope, but was soon deflated.

My cardiologist ordered a nuclear treadmill test which I did a week later. I felt fine as I am in reasonably good shape. They called me the next day and said that it was abnormal, and that I had restricted blood flow in the right side. This news obliterated me, and I fell into a kind of depressed state. I simply could not understand how I went from bumps n grooves to at least 70% blockage in 12 years.

I had a cardio cath on the day after Christmas, and to just about everyone's surprise, my coronary arteries showed mild plaque (two spots that were 20-30%), but nothing that they needed to treat with stents. So, they increased my statin to 40, and I am going to try and eat better and take some supplements like fish oil.

The whole experience was pretty traumatizing, but it had a happy ending, and I at least have peace of mind. The cardiologist that did the procedure said that the calcium that was picked up on the CT scan was within the walls of my arteries. He also said that false positives happen all the time on nuclear stress tests. Something about the diaphragm interfering. The fact that I had two false positives is stunning to me, and I still cant believe it happened.

I guess life goes on. 🙂

Good story, skypigg! We can all relate. And this underscores the reality (imho) that there is NOT a linear relationship between CAC score and obstructive plaque. If that were the case, we'd all be 6' under by now. Tangentially, I saw my cardiologist last week and he told me about a patient referred to him for cath because a patient had overwhelming anxiety about his CAC score of 275. He did the cath and the vessels were squeaky clean. He also said that they, cardiologists, tend to see problems with coronary disease in the </= 500 CAC range, but not so much above that range. Also, as another aside, I asked him how often they see STEMI (full tilt heart attack) in patients on statins with high CAC score. He said that regardless, they hardly ever see STEMIs when patients are on statins. At the local large hospital this past year, there were ~ 250 heart attacks. The number of those ON statins could be counted on one hand. We need to chill, guys. We do what we can, take our statins, do what we can to reduce systemic inflammation - another deep and wide subject - and get on with our lives without adding to the burden of this existence by fueling anxiety. As another fish in the sea with a CAC over 2500, despite having tried to live a health freak life, it is what it is. I had a nice cookie after my spaghetti dinner. My wife makes killer sauce and I enjoyed every bite.