Researchers said if patients get routine eye exams and compare them against the model used in this study, physicians could predict if someone will have a heart attack as soon as five years before it happens.
"Strikingly, we discovered that our model was able to better classify participants with low or high MI risk in UKB when compared with established models that only include demographic data. The improvement of our model was even higher if we added a score related to the genetic propensity of developing MI," said Ana Villaplana-Velasco, a Ph.D. student at the Usher and Roslin Institutes, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, U.K. and co-author of the study.
Earlier this month, the American Heart Association announced another non-invasive test that could potentially determine a person’s risk of heart disease before they experience any symptoms. The test involves a CT-scan of the chest that takes about ten minutes to perform and then a score representing the amount of plaque present is assigned to the patient. A higher CAC test score suggests you may be at a higher risk for future heart attack and have a higher chance of significant narrowing in the coronary arteries, according toDepending on your score, your physician will determine the appropriate treatment for you that may include medication or a procedure.
Scores over 300 suggest a large amount of plaque and your chance of heart attack is high. Your healthcare practitioner will likely want immediate follow-up testing and to start treatment at that level, according to health experts.