Joining a gym? get a heart scan first, say Experts

HYDERABAD: Leading a more active lifestyle and joining a gym for physical exercise is a great New Year's resolution. However, experts advise getting your heart checked first to determine your risk of having a heart attack.

According to WHO Global Health estimates, nearly 11 percent of the Indian population has coronary artery disease (heart disease). This means that one out of every ten Indians has heart disease, which is significantly higher than the global average.

A calcified plaque buildup in the heart was discovered in approximately 20 percent of asymptomatic people undergoing routine preventive screening at NURA. Many of them were at high risk of having a heart attack but were completely unaware of the danger because there are no symptoms. They were saved in the nick of time as their condition could be diagnosed before a heart attack occurred.

Dr. Tausif Ahmed Thangalvadi, Medical Director at NURA, a collaboration between Fujifilm Healthcare and Dr Kutty’s Healthcare offering AI-enabled imaging in Bengaluru and Gurugram, “There is a gym craze sweeping the nation among all age groups. However, cases are also coming to light of many people, even celebrities and youngsters, unexpectedly collapsing during exercise due to heart attack. The reason is the gradual buildup of calcified plaque in the arteries. This can grow and lead to narrowing of coronary arteries and increased risk of heart attack, as rigorous physical exercise puts a lot of strain on the heart".

He added, “Plaque in arteries is much more common in men than women, and its incidence increases as you advance in age. Before hitting the gym, everyone should get themselves a coronary calcium scan to measure calcium-containing plaque in arteries. Go slow on exercise if you have a buildup of plaque and immediately consult a cardiologist.”

Preventive screening tests such as heart calcium scan can detect the plaque early when the build-up has just begun. Forewarned, the patient can take preventive measures with lifestyle modifications. Dr. Tausif Ahmed Thangalvadi said, “Today, the world over, Heart Calcium Score is recommended for screening cardiac risk in asymptomatic people. In this, a low-dose CT scan is used to take cross-sections of the heart’s blood vessels to look for build-up of calcified plaques made of fats, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances in the blood. The Heart Calcium Score helps us identify a person at risk of a heart attack even before signs and symptoms develop.”