A new study has found that existing cardiac screening tools may be failing to identify nearly 45 per cent of individuals who are actually at risk of suffering a heart attack. The findings point to gaps in current assessment methods that rely mainly on symptoms and risk-score calculations.
The research, led by scientists from Mount Sinai in the US, has been published in JACC: Advances. It assessed whether two commonly used tools — the atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk score and a newer calculator known as PREVENT — accurately reflect the risk of heart attacks.
The team analysed data from 474 patients under the age of 66 who had no previous diagnosis of coronary artery disease. According to the findings, if these patients had been evaluated two days before they suffered their first heart attack, nearly half would not have been advised for preventive therapy or further testing under current ASCVD-based guidelines. The percentage rose to 61 per cent when the PREVENT calculator was applied.
Researchers also reported that 60 per cent of patients developed symptoms such as chest pain or breathlessness less than two days before the cardiac event, indicating that symptoms may appear too late to guide preventive intervention.
The authors noted that early detection of plaque buildup — rather than depending largely on symptoms and risk scores — could improve prevention. They suggested increased use of atherosclerosis imaging to identify “silent plaque” at an early stage.
-IANS