1. < Heart & Blood Health

coronary plaque findings

Posted by antonio65 @antonio65, Jun 4 7:31am

I am a 60 year old male and a non smoker and have found out this morning that my CT Heart Angiogram has identified minor atheroma with no obstructive coronary disease.
I am been told that I qualify for "preventative statin therapy" Not sure how serious this diagnosis is in the longer term or if these plaques are pretty normal for someone my age. The consultant was rather vague and seemed very "matter of fact" ...do I have any cause to be worried?
Many thanks
Antonio

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gloaming | @gloaming | Jun 9 1:40pm

One other consideration about statins: they raise the HBA1C in almost all patients. Note that this is regardless of their being diabetic, either type, or not.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4799528/

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gloaming | @gloaming | Jun 9 2:06pm
In reply to @lp77 "My husband has a high calcium CT score . He has been on a statin for..." + (show)
@lp77

My husband has a high calcium CT score . He has been on a statin for years prior to this . His cardiologist said the statin actually helped him since it stabilizes the sticky plaque that is more dangerous than the stable calcified plaque .
Thoughts ?

Jump to this post

I think these two videos are instructive, and at least offer food for thought:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29cC4sbzDQM&t=278s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_QdNX9etCg&t=16s

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mayoconnectuser1 | @mayoconnectuser1 | Jun 10 5:45am
In reply to @lp77 "It was close to 800 . We were quite surprised . He is not overweight but..." + (show)
@lp77

It was close to 800 . We were quite surprised . He is not overweight but has had issues with high cholesterol and high LDL . He has been in a statin for 18 years prior to to calcium CT scan . He has adopted the Mediterranean diet , more cardio . He passed stress test , EKG was good .
Just will stay on top of it with diet , exercise. He was also prescribed zetia to help get LDL down to 55 .
He always enjoyed eating whatever he wanted but now is very serious about diet .
Hereditary part : High family cholesterol.

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That sounds consistent with what I have read - likely had he not been on statins, then his CAC score would be lower, but the bad cholesterol would not have been calcified.

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joaf37 | @joaf37 | Jun 11 9:48am

Lately every time I try to sign in there is a screen on a black background promoting three aspects of Mayo's business. They are odd but they are definitely related to Mayo. I need to access this site several times before that stops. Can you advise what that is?

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agb | @agb | Jun 14 7:27am
In reply to @lp77 "It was close to 800 . We were quite surprised . He is not overweight but..." + (show)
@lp77

It was close to 800 . We were quite surprised . He is not overweight but has had issues with high cholesterol and high LDL . He has been in a statin for 18 years prior to to calcium CT scan . He has adopted the Mediterranean diet , more cardio . He passed stress test , EKG was good .
Just will stay on top of it with diet , exercise. He was also prescribed zetia to help get LDL down to 55 .
He always enjoyed eating whatever he wanted but now is very serious about diet .
Hereditary part : High family cholesterol.

Jump to this post

I'm right there with your husband: family history, similar CAC score (843 here), diet, exercise, and pass all the tests. I was unable to get my LDL under around 100 after being on 80 mg statin plus 10 mg zetia for more than 15 years, so Repatha injectable was added. Dropped the LDL from 109 down to 27. And I've moved to a mostly plant-based diet, so even less poultry than previously (haven't had red meat for years)

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lp77 | @lp77 | Jun 14 9:37am

You’re doing all the good things you can do .
How long have you been doing this ?
Does anyone know if a high CAC score shortens life ?

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