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Ask the Doctor:
A recent heart test produced confusing results — I was told my arteries looked normal, but showed signs of disease.
I was advised to take aspirin, cholesterol-lowering medication and a beta-blocker every day for the rest of my life.
I’m a healthy 48-year-old non-smoker, who takes regular exercise and has a good diet.
Why has this happened to me?
Stephen Lyall, by email.
'I'm a healthy 48-year-old non-smoker, who takes regular
exercise and has a good diet,' emails Stephen Lyall (file picture)
This must be frightening for you — for despite being told that your test result was normal, you have been advised to take medication for the rest of your life.
Your test would have been carried out as your doctors were worried that one or more of your coronary arteries — which supply the heart with blood — may have become blocked with fatty cholesterol deposits.
This is called atherosclerosis, and causes muscle damage in the heart that can lead to heart disease, and ultimately, a heart attack.
Indeed, coronary heart disease is Britain’s biggest killer, and around one in five men and one in seven women die from the condition.
Hence the need to investigate if a person develops any symptoms of heart disease, such as chest pain, palpitations or breathlessness.
The type of test you had is a relatively new technique, called a coronary artery CT angiogram.
This involves injecting a dye into the veins that shows up on a CT scan, and then scanning the heart to see if this dye is blocked or obstructed as it flows through the heart.
The results showed that your arteries are not blocked by fatty deposits — a positive sign.
However, it did reveal that your arteries have started to harden. Calcium deposits have formed in the artery walls, rather like calcium build-up in water pipes.
Simply put, calcium is a marker of a diseased artery.
This must seem frustrating for you considering your age and fitness, but family history also plays a role, particularly if you have a male relative who developed the condition under the age of 55, or a female relative who developed it under 65.
The presence of this calcium build-up shows that potentially dangerous fatty deposits have formed throughout the artery, although these are too small to detect at this stage.
Essentially, the body has detected minor damage caused by these fatty deposits and calcium has been dispatched to the artery walls to help strengthen and widen the artery.
This is alarming, but on the principle of a stitch in time saves nine, it does make sense to address this problem at an early stage.
The statin will help to prevent any further build-up of cholesterol deposits, and recent evidence suggests it will even shrink any that are there.
Aspirin will make the blood less sticky, and less likely to form a clot when it reaches a cholesterol deposit, and the beta-blocker can reduce high blood pressure and improve blood flow to the heart.
In conclusion, it is vital to bite the bullet and remain on medication: a great contribution comes from yourself by way of continued exercise and dietary care — and, as you’re already in good shape, your health prospects are good.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2147931/Ask-doctor-Im-fit-arteries-blocked-up.html
