Screening CT not helpful for Diabetics with no symptoms of Heart Disease

The first sign of heart disease for many people is when they experience a heart attack. Patients with diabetes are at higher-risk for developing heart disease but may not show any outward signs or symptoms. A new study examined whether a screening CT to look for heart disease or just standard medical management is better for long-term outcomes. “That brings up the question, should we start screening patients who don’t have heart disease or evidence of heart disease but are at risk for it.” Dr. J. Brent Muhlestein from the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute and co-authors randomly assigned 900 older patients with diabetes to either a screening CT coronary angiogram or standard medical care for diabetes, to see which group experienced more deaths, heart attacks or hospitalizations for unstable angina. “We expected 8 percent per year to have one of those major primary events. Only less than two percent had an adverse event each year. It is not necessary to screen these asymptomatic patients with expensive screening tests. It is however extremely imperative that these patients receive aggressive guideline based optimal medical therapy.” The study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.