Deans' stroke musings: Calcium in arteries may best predict risk of heart attack, stroke

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Friday, September 1, 2017

Calcium in arteries may best predict risk of heart attack, stroke

So what is the fucking protocol that everyone should be using to determine your CVD risk? These other ones or the newest?

MRI scan that can predict stroke risk has 'promise to save lives'

Intravascular photoacoustic (IVPA) imaging

Sodium fluoride that had been tagged with a tiny amount of a radioactive tracer and then using PET scans

The newest here:

Calcium in arteries may best predict risk of heart attack, stroke

THURSDAY, Aug. 31, 2017 -- People with no calcium buildup in their arteries seem to have a significantly lower risk of heart attack and stroke, a new study finds.
Calcium collects in the arteries after plaque builds up and hardens over time, the study authors explained.

For the study, researchers looked at nearly 6,200 people, aged 45 to 84, and found that those whose arteries were free of calcium deposits had a less than 3 percent chance of heart attack or stroke over the next decade.
That's well below the 7.5 percent heart risk level used as a guideline to begin treatment with cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, the researchers noted.
The study finding held true even among people who had other risk factors, such as diabetes, high blood pressure or high levels of bad cholesterol.
About half of the study participants showed no calcium deposits in their arteries.
"The event rates when coronary calcium is absent are low. Our findings suggest that individuals with no calcium buildup in their blood vessels may not have to take statins despite the presence of other risk factors that cause coronary disease," said study author Dr. Parag Joshi. He is a preventive cardiologist and assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern in Dallas.
The findings suggest that a CT scan for calcium in arteries may be something doctors and patients should discuss, according to Joshi.
"A CT scan is a test that is easily done, costs about 100 bucks in most major cities, and can give a lot more information about the patient's 10-year risk," Joshi said in a university news release.
However, the researchers added, there may be other reasons statins are recommended by a doctor. For example, it might be advisable to start statin treatment before there is evidence of calcium buildup if a person has a family history of cardiovascular problems, Joshi said.
The study was published as a letter in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Imaging.