The Bee Cave Bee

Lakeway Regional Medical Center is pleased to announce that approval has been granted by the Texas Department of State Health to perform Calcium Score CT Scans on patients without obtaining an order from a physician.

As long as the patient meets certain criteria, this simple and highly informative test can be performed on the following persons on a self-referred basis:

• Males between the ages of 40-65
• Females between the ages of 45-70
• All patients must have at least one of the following risk factors:

    1.    Diabetes
    2.    Current Smoker
    3.    Obesity
    4.    Family history of heart disease
    5.    Cholesterol level greater than 160/LDL
    6.    Blood pressure greater than 140/90

Persons who are interested in having this exam, but do not meet this criteria must present an order from a physician. ?This is a simple and painless test which is used to check for heart disease in an early stage and to determine the severity. The patient’s chest area (heart) is scanned to check for buildup of calcium or plaque on the walls of the arteries of the heart (coronary arteries). The coronary arteries supply blood to the heart. Normally, the coronary arteries do not contain calcium. Calcium in the coronary arteries is a sign of coronary artery disease (CAD). ?

This short scan is done on LRMC’s state of the art, low-dose, 64 slice CT scanner. A CT scan takes pictures of the heart in thin sections. The pictures are recorded in a computer and can be saved for more study or printed out as photographs. It takes less than 10 minutes for the entire test and a Board Certified Radiologist (M.D.) will review the images and provide a thorough interpretation for the patient and/or the physician. ?A list of LRMC physicians will be provided to these patients in the event that a follow-up visit will be necessary.