Submitted by Dr T on November 17, 2011 – 8:27am
Hi Rob,
1. Your heart catherization was not “false positive”, it just didn’t show a serious blockage. This is unusual, considering you had a positve stress test. However, this alone should have indicated you were at a high risk for heart disease and doctors start treatment for the associated risk factors such as a high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, obesity and smoking.
2. Your calcium score is very high, and usually associated with coronary artery disease.
3. At this point, rather than catherization, your doctors (and you) should check your symptoms & risks first.
4. Depending on the results, the next step should include a stress test (just like I suggested above).
If positive, depending on your symptoms, a choice between catherization or CTCA would be the next step. A cath would be a more logical choice if interventions such as stenting or bypass surgery are considered. Often CTCA is adequate.
Treatment depends on the results of all these tests. However, no matter what the outcome, there are things you can and should do.
For more information about how medical decisions are made, you might want to read this actual evaluation.
Hope this helps,
Dr T