The UW-Madison Medical School announced Friday that carotid thickness tests, used to measure vascular age in persons with an intermediate risk for heart disease, are now available for clinical testing.
Carotid thickness tests, used to measure the thickness of artery walls, have been used for over 20 years in research. Only in the past six months have they been covered by insurance in a clinical setting.
James Stein, associate director of the UW Health Heart and Vascular Care Preventive Cardiology program, stated in a press release Friday that the test will be most useful for people who have neither high nor low risk of heart disease.
\A lot of patients fall into an intermediate zone."" he said. ""They present a clinical challenge when it comes to determining their disease burden and management plan.""
Whereas primary physicians can only take into account general factors that may lead to heart disease such as age, family history and individual risk factors, the carotid thickness test specifically measures the thickness of patients' arteries to determine their vascular age.
""Getting a vascular age gives you a more accurate picture for your age,"" said Maureen Mays, Stein's vascular imaging research fellow.
Since age is the most important factor when looking at the risk of heart disease, this test can be very useful for people with healthy lifestyles who are still uncertain of their risks. The ultrasound image can serve as a wake-up call to the patient and will lead to more aggressive tactics from the primary physician.
While this test serves a great purpose for a specific group of patients at risk for heart disease, some physicians said they are unsure if the test will apply to the majority of the population.
""While this might be a very useful test in one strata of the population, we are still not doing a very good job of all the people that are in the very bad strata,"" said Alexandra Adams, assistant professor of family medicine at the UW-Madison Medical School.
Adams cited risky lifestyle behaviors as an increasing problem when considering heart disease risk.
""Our American diet and exercise levels ... those are the big targets we need to be looking at,"" Adams said.
Currently, there is a two-month wait for carotid thickness test appointments.
Mays said she is confident these tests will be helpful to people with intermediate risk by making results ""much more precise.\
