• Heart

• Colon

Heart:

• Echocardiography

• Nuclear Stress Test

• ViaScan Electron Beam Tomography

According to American Heart Association data, published 2004, for about 65% of men and 47% of women, the first symptom of cardiovascular disease is heart attack or sudden death (death within one hour of symptom onset). Yet the evidence is that stress tests, even if they were performed shortly prior to these events, would not detect that these events were about to happen for most of the individuals who were about to have events.  [source www.wikipedia.com]

Echocardiography Stress Test: - "Echo"

Echocardiography is used to diagnose cardiovascular diseases. In fact, it is one of the most widely used diagnostic tests for heart disease. It can provide a wealth of helpful information, including the size and shape of the heart, its pumping capacity and the location and extent of any damage to its tissues. It is especially useful for assessing diseases of the heart valves. It not only allows doctors to evaluate the heart valves, but it can detect abnormalities in the pattern of blood flow, such as the backward flow of blood through partly closed heart valves, known as regurgitation.  Echocardiography look at the ultrasound waves that bounce back from the heart but can not detect heart plaque. 

Echocardiograph suffer from false negatives and false positive test results.  The tests are graded normal, abnormal or equivocal (unknown).  Basically they are a guess.  False negative results incorrectly indicate there is no blockage when plaque does exist and subsequently patients suffer a heart attack or death.  Echocardiography can not see plaque in arteries, so it only detects issues once damage has occurred to the heart. 

Nuclear Stress Test

Nuclear Stress test utilize radioactive "tracers"  such as Thallium and Cardiolyte to increase the clarity of a Nuclear Stress test.  It's purpose is to determine how well blood is flowing through the heart and is an indicator of the mechanical condition of the heart.  The problem is nuclear stress test will miss 100% of early plaque buildup and may only detect an issue once plaque has reached 70% blockage.  The tests are graded normal, abnormal or equivocal (unknown).  Basically they are a guess.  Nuclear Stress test can not see plaque in arteries, so it only detects issues once damage has occurred to the heart. 

With nuclear stress testing, false positive rate is 20% meaning that 20% of the people are sent to the hospital for cardiac catherization costing upwards of $20,000 and subjecting the patients to a 5% chance of death only to find out there are not major blockages.  Conversely, nuclear stress test show a 15%  false negative rate meaning that 15% of the people are sent home and told there are not issues only to discover they have major blockage that results in death or permanent heart damage via heart attack. 

ViaScan Electron Beam Tomography (EBT)

For the first time in EBT cardiovascular preventive history, plaque can be seen as small as 1 millimeter in size years or decades before substantial build up develops that results in heart attack or surgery.   This enable you and your health care provider to take a proactive approach to your cardiovascular health. 

 If plaque is detected, then an iodine contrast is injected and a virtual angiogram enables you to see the degree of plaque blockage with accurate imaging.  With ViaScan, you can see the plaque in the arteries before your options are limited to stents (70%<blockage<99%) or by-pass (100% blockage) or heart attack resulting in heart damage or death.

Over the last couple of decades, other methods have been developed as ways to better detect atherosclerotic disease before it becomes symptomatic. These have included both (a) anatomic detection methods and (b) physiologic measurement methods.

Examples of anatomic methods include: (1) coronary calcium scoring by computed tomography, (2) carotid IMT (intimal medial thickness) measurement by ultrasound, e.g. IntiMaTe, and (3) IVUS.
[source www.wikipedia.com]

See Testing Comparison Chart on Cost, Accuracy and Radiation

See the Plaque, Treat the Plaque, Live a Better Life.

At ViaScan, we provide you with an individualized health care program that has the potential to reduce the plaque in 30% of individuals, stop the accumulation of plaque in 60% or slow the accumulation of plaque in 90% of the individuals.  If left untreated, plaque will accumulate at rate of  40% each year.

Colon

Conventional Colonoscopy

Colonoscopy is the endoscopic examination of the large colon and the distal part of the small bowel with a CCD camera or a fiber optic camera on a flexible tube passed through the anus through the 4 or 5 feet of colon. It may provide a visual diagnosis (e.g. ulceration, polyps) and grants the opportunity for biopsy or removal of suspected lesions.  However given that only 10% of individuals ever need to have polyps removed, all 100% were sedated, miss a day of work and risk colon puncturing or bleeding .  Ninety percent of people could receive preventive virtual colonoscopy screening for about one-fourth the cost and non of the discomfort and inconvenience of a conventional colonoscopy.

Virtual Colonoscopy

The ViaScan virtual colonoscopy is a medical imaging procedure which uses low radiation x-rays to produce two- and three-dimensional images of the colon (large intestine) from the lowest part, the rectum, all the way to the lower end of the small intestine and display them on a screen.  The procedure is used to diagnose colon and bowel disease, including polyps, diverticulosis and cancer.

The virtual colonoscopy is more comfortable than conventional colonoscopy  because it does not use a colonoscope. As a result, no sedation is needed, and the patient can return to his/her usual activities or go home after the procedure without the aid of another person. Virtual colonoscopy provides clearer, more detailed images than a conventional x-ray using a barium enema, sometimes called a lower gastrointestinal (GI) series. Further, about 1 in 10 patients will not have a complete right colon (cecum) evaluation completed with conventional colonoscopy. It also takes less time, about fifteen minutes, than either a conventional colonoscopy or a lower GI series.

Virtual colonoscopies provides a secondary value added benefit of revealing diseases or abnormalities outside the colon.  For example, with a virtual colonoscopy, we view your reproductive organs, bladder, kidneys, abdominal aorta, liver, spleen, gall bladder at no additional charge.  If performed individually, these scans would cost you thousands of dollars. 

Scan today for a better tomorrow!