Could a Simple Test Have Saved Millions From Heart Attacks?

In the past thirty years, more than four million Americans have died of heart attacks with no prior symptoms and none of the hallmark risk factors — young, healthy people. And according to the documentary Widowmaker, a simple test called the coronary artery scan, dubbed the “mammogram of the heart,” might have prevented them.

Director Patrick Forbes knew someone who fit the unorthodox profile of a victim. “A friend of mine, who was a brilliant lawyer, toppled down the stairs one day of a heart attack,” he tells Yahoo Health. “No one had any idea there was a problem. She had two young kids. She was 46.” The coronary artery scan was meant to help those like her.

Related: The Diet That’s Better For Your Heart Than Exercise 

The film discusses this still-underutilized technology, a $100 test that identifies calcium deposits in the heart, and has struggled to gain widespread acceptance since it was first invented in 1981. When Forbes learned about the proactive approach to preventing silently-approaching heart attacks, by way of an ailing Irish billionaire looking to fund a movie on the topic, he was shocked.

He thought of his young friend’s tragic death, and it all clicked. “It just showed the devastating power of this sort of event,” Forbes says. “I just thought, ‘This is an extraordinary thing.’ We wanted to show that this disease affects every person, and the confused sense of loss when there is no warning.”

And in Widowmaker, he does. This is the story of stent versus scan, intercut with the stories of family members left behind in the wake of a victim’s sudden, massive heart attack.

While the heart scan experienced an array of setbacks, doctors have been inserting stents into arteries after massive heart attacks or other traumatic cardiac events – technology that’s meant to patch up problems after they explode, and also carry a hefty price tag.

The difference is essentially prevention versus treatment. If you can identify heart disease and stop a heart attack with a simple scan, why wouldn’t you? At $50,000 a stent, the film highlights a few doctors that have gotten rich implanting these devices in blocked arteries after coronary events.

In 2013, the American Heart Association declared the coronary artery scan beneficial, but it still hasn’t taken off as a proactive route for all Americans – and many docs still don’t think it’s an effective solution to the problem of heart disease in the masses.

Related: Men Can Reduce Their Heart Attack Risk By 86 Percent. Why Don’t They?

Matthew Budoff, MD, an associate professor of medicine and the Director of Cardiology at UCLA’s Geffen School of Medicine is featured in the film, and has been heavily involved getting this scan legitimized. “It’s a non-invasive scan that takes about five minutes,” he tells Yahoo Health. “The science has come out, and for people with mild to moderate risk, this is the most predictive approach.”

The scoring ranges from zero through the hundreds, and the higher your score, the higher the risk. Budoff says there’s generally a big cause for concern if the score reads above 300, or beyond the 75th percentile for age and gender.

Appearing healthy doesn’t always mean you are healthy. If you’re at moderate risk, but seem generally well, it might be a worth looking into a scan. If your calcium score is high, you can take serious steps to prevent heart attack, like altering diet, kicking a smoking habit, losing weight, or finding a better exercise regimen.

Heart disease doesn’t discriminate. Budoff always compares the heart scan to the mammogram, because it has the same sort of early-detection capabilities. “Older women are one group that’s being ignored,” he says, noting the statistics of cardiac deaths are staggering. Nearly six times as many women die from heart disease than breast cancer each year.

The technology is still catching on, and although more and more doctors know about it, not everyone does or recommends it, which is what the Widowmaker seems to underscore. The scan is not right for every person, but it’s worth asking your doc about – especially if you haven’t heard the term “coronary calcium scanning,” and have some risks of heart disease.

It takes years for some innovation and research to catch on, and Widowmaker makes the a case for the heart scan falling in this camp. “There are still many doctors who are old school, and it’s being more in the preventative world is a factor,” Budoff says, as to why some physicians might not be as familiar.

Whether you ultimately get scanned or not, it’s worth knowing your heart disease risk and taking preventative steps now. “The patient needs to advocate for themselves,” says Budoff, “especially in this regard, because it’s literally life or death.”

Read This Next: 6 Healthy Habits That Dramatically Reduce Heart Disease Risks