Well, that’s a bit like Admiral Nelson allegedly putting his telescope to his blind eye and announcing “I see no ships” (when he wanted to defy orders to retreat from battle…allegedly). A test that’s not powered to detect soft non calcified plaque is, unsurprisingly, not going to detect soft, non calcified plaque.
CT angiography…and even direct catheterization, I think…can detect it, but not necessarily exclude the possibility of it being there just because it hasn’t been visualized. A perfect example of the adage, “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”
Well, you were the one who reckoned the doctors are confused not I.
Far from it being my opinion, here’s a photograph taken from an image in one of dh’s pathology books. An electronmicrograph of a section through the wall of the anterior descending coronary artery. Note from the verbiage, this is from a 24 year old homicide victim (died from non cardiac causes in other words). This is an early atherosclerotic lesion. Not yet at the calcification stage.
Had CAC/CT angiography been around back then (a 1999 textbook)… or even traditional invasive cathetization …the vessel wall would’ve appeared clean as a whistle. Just like it does on the photo. If all coronary vessels were in no more advanced a stage than this, the Agatson score would’ve been zero.
Regardless, the disease process is well under way and possibly set to cause clinical signs and symptoms in another 20-30 years or so if the poor devil had still been alive
The other doctors. Not all doctors are cardiologists. I thought you knew that much.
Giigle result…oo
Yes, while calcium in the arteries is often a sign of plaque buildup, it’s possible to have calcium deposits in the arteries without a significant amount of plaque, and vice versa.
Looking into it you are factual soft plaque would not show in the CAC testing. That said I am not short of breath when I exert myself. I am not showing any symptoms for now. I had a stress test two summers ago.
BTW knowing whether I have the mutation or not begins a battle plan if needed to follow the drug developments.
Ah, well what you’re demonstrating here is the faulty reasoning behind being reactive after a problem manifests itself rather than being proactive, the better to prevent the problem in the first place. And that’s fine.
Interestingly, Lp(a) measurement is recommended as a once in a lifetime screening tool in cardiology guidelines of a good many other developed countries. I picked that up on an earlier Attia …and posted it here, I believe…was confirmed and approved of by my intervention cardiologist (I too was an ignoramus on that score until then) Also at an early enough age (childhood screening?) to encourage an appropriately aggressive approach to managing any other risk factors.
I encouraged my daughter to request a similar lipid panel addition on annual physical. She did. At least she hasn’t inherited mama’s tendency to coronary artery disease, it seems…only migraine and bunions (so far) and daddy’s aortopathy!!
Yeah there are splits between my mom’s mom and her siblings. By the time you get to 97 having mini strokes is just the parts wearing out in the brain.
The few sisters with a history of stroke may have gone their way and gran hers.
Gramps worries me more. Dad’s dad. His family is an unknown. That said Dad is 86 with no stroke history. Smokes a pack a day and has high cholesterol and BP. I do not, and my sugar is normal. I am diabetic but my sugar is 90 or less fasting. A1C is 5.9.
There are other factors. Never know if they help. The correlations are worthless so far.
Only just noticed this response…my question would be “Which correlations … and for whom?”
So, dad has high BP and high cholesterol (untreated?) and is a long term smoker. That might be a correlation that’s far from worthless right there. Didn’t you mention a pacemaker placement for him a while back??? I’d certainly go for it if necessary…but I’d like to take the obvious steps now to avoid pacemaker placement within the next decade. Especially if I hadn’t done so over the past half century.
For yourself, you don’t have “high cholesterol” and your sugar is normal, apparently. Haven’t you mentioned that you are on long term Metformin and a statin??? That’s what these drugs are supposed to do to mitigate the effects of metabolic dysfunction/T2D…and provide some degree of future proofing for your body, the better to avoid interventions like, say pacemakers etc in the marginal years.
No different from planning in the here and now for financial security in the future. Don’t know about anyone else, but “the here and now” started decades ago for me (and still continues…the better to assist Colorado’s divorce and child custody lawyers and sundry hangers on in lining their respective nests, it seems!!)…for both health and wellbeing and finances.
Just got my annual bloodwork done. Mixed bag. LDL rose from 70 last year to 93 this year. Not good, but better than the 100 plus that I was seeing in the years prior to the addition of trf to my regimen. Triglycerides rose from 36 to 49. Again not good but better than previous years. Hdl 81 instead of 79 so my cholesterol/hdl ratio of 2.3 is still good.
The usual suspects life style, eating, risk factors. The little reading I have done things work occasionally for one person but not logically for the next.
Dad has treated since age 55.
He got a pacemaker at age 75. You can avoid somethings but not everything. Note yourself. He’s 86 and a smoker but he has outlived his mother. He is in pretty good shape better than his friends. He is 86 enjoy the cigarettes. We do not have much cancer in our family on either side. His DNA so far has worked for him.
Over my parent’s house today noticed both of this are slightly waddling. They do not want to be off balance. For their age both of them walk well. No cane etc…that is still way off in the distance unless their health takes a turn.
We do not know what my mid 70s hold instore but I treat my life responsibly.
Good luck with your daughter’s ex. Sounds like he is a piece of work.
I am interested in my LP(a). Some 70% plus of the population has a <30 reading. Higher readings change things.
Nothing can be done for now. But before I am 75 safer options could be available.
