£500 scan spots heart disease early

The scan can provide detailed images

A scanner which can detect the early warning signals of heart disease in apparently healthy people is being brought to the UK.

However, the Electron Beam Tomography service will not be available to NHS patients.

People wanting to take advantage must first find £500.

Heart disease is caused by the gradual narrowing and blocking of the arteries supplying oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscles.

Hard to spot

Often, the extent of the blockage is not obvious until more than one artery is severely narrowed, and heart bypass surgery is required.

At the moment, there are few ways of spotting those apparently healthy individuals who are at highest risk of developing heart disease.

The technique gives us the best hope yet of detecting disease at an early stage where it may be possible to stabilise it through lifestyle changes or medical treatment

Professor Richard Underwood, Imperial College, London

The most reliable is finding out whether they smoke and drink, take exercise and measuring their weight.

Other types of scanner, while good at producing images of non-moving parts of the body, such as tumours, or the aorta - the main artery leading from the heart - are less effective when asked to take a snapshot of the beating heart itself, and the smaller vessels which supply it.

The only reliable way of finding out whether there is artery narrowing is an invasive test called an angiogram, which involves injecting a dye which can be spotted on conventional scans into the coronary arteries.

3D images

The electron beam tomography scanner, however, can create reliable three-dimensional pictures because it takes pictures 10 times more rapidly, and uses advanced computer software.

Doctors say it can help them look at the inner walls of the heart arteries, and spot signs that hardening and narrowing is taking place.

3D images from the scan

It does this by picking out areas where there are excessive amounts of the mineral calcium - known to be a sign of hardening.

Richard Underwood, professor of cardiac imaging at Imperial College, London, said: "It is the only established non-invasive method that we have of looking at the wall of the coronary artery where plaques may form, due to the deposition of fat and calcium.

"Hence the technique gives us the best hope yet of detecting disease at an early stage where it may be possible to stabilise it through lifestyle changes or medical treatment."

The scan is being offered at £500 by a Harley Street clinic.