Menopause and age raise our cardiovascular disease risk. Athletes and highly active people also tend to have a higher prevalence of coronary artery calcium and atherosclerotic plaque (though it tends to be the benign kind). But what does that all mean? How can we know what’s really going on in those coronary arteries of ours? To find out, host Selene Yeager had a Cleerly-enabled coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA), which uses AI-enabled software to help characterize coronary plaque composition and cardiovascular disease risk. This week, she sat down with Anita Vadria, MS, PA-C, who is the Director of Medical Science Liaisons and Clinical Education at Cleerly to go over her results, talk about plaque and heart disease risk, and how technology is helping advance our understanding of our personal risk.

Anita Vadria, MS, PA-C, is the Director of Medical Science Liaisons and Clinical Education at Cleerly. She is a Board Certified Physician Assistant with a focus in Cardiology. She received her undergraduate degree in Molecular and Cell Biology and received her Masters in Physician Assistant Studies from Western University of Health Sciences in Los Angeles, CA.

Resources

Impact of atherosclerosis imaging-quantitative computed tomography on diagnostic certainty, downstream testing, coronary revascularization, and medical therapy: the CERTAIN study, here

Atherosclerosis Imaging Quantitative Computed Tomography (AI‐QCT) to guide referral to invasive coronary angiography in the randomized controlled CONSERVE trial, here

Coronary Artery Calcification Among Endurance Athletes “Hearts of Stone”, here

Physical Activity and Progression of Coronary Artery Calcification in Men and Women, here

Most heart attack patients' cholesterol levels did not indicate cardiac risk, here

Lipid levels in patients hospitalized with coronary artery disease: an analysis of 136,905 hospitalizations in Get With The Guidelines, here

2010 ACCF/AHA Guideline for Assessment of Cardiovascular Risk in Asymptomatic Adults

A Report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines, here

Heart attacks with no obvious risk factors on the rise, here

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