Doctors are always looking for better ways of detecting heart disease, the number one killer in Canada. A clinic in Peterborough, Ont. is offering a unique test that it claims catches the disease in its early stages. But not everyone is convinced.
Dr. William Hughes offers special scans of the arteries in the neck through his clinic, He says the carotid artery in the neck serves as a sort of window into the vascular system because if there is plaque growth there, there likely is disease elsewhere in the body.
"If you find it in your neck, you also have it in your heart, your brain, your kidneys and everywhere," says Hughes.
Heart patient Earl Robbins underwent a carotid screening and thinks it may have saved his life. An ultrasound was performed on his carotid artery that measured the thickness of the arteries. In Robbins' case, the scan found a worrisome amount of plaque -- the accumulation of cholesterol within the arterial wall.
That carotid ultrasound led to more tests in which doctors found a blocked artery that if left untreated, could have led to a heart attack.
"I had no idea I might have heart disease. I had no symptoms," Robbins says.
"That initial test, I think, helped me dodge a bullet."
Doctors traditionally look for signs of heart disease by testing the heart's endurance through stress tests and by measuring cholesterol levels. Dr. Hughes believes that painless, fast and non-invasive carotid scans should be added to that list of tests.
His clinic has found that about half of women over 50 and up to 80 per cent of men have plaque build-up in their arteries, even though they have no other obvious signs of heart disease. Catching it early means patients can go for further tests or adopt healthier diets, exercise or take medications.
"A lot of people have stopped smoking on the basis of the pictures we've shown them of their neck," says Hughes.
The screening test isn't currently routinely offered but Dr. Hughes believes it should become a standard test for everyone middle-aged or older.
"I am absolutely convinced that thousands of lives would be saved if we had a structured screening program for vascular disease in Canada," he says.
Such a screening program is an interesting idea, says heart specialist Dr.Peter Liu of the Toronto General Hospital, but it's not something he'd recommend yet. That's because no one knows for sure if this kind of early detection really saves lives.
"I think the general idea of doing some kind of imaging to detect heart disease early is a good one, but it is not ready for prime time," says Liu.
Hughes disagrees. His clinic recommends that men over 45 and women over 50 would benefit from regular carotid screening. He's hoping for the day when carotid screening for vascular disease becomes routine.
From a report by CTV medical specialist Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip
