Coronary artery calcium (CAC) CT scans are becoming a more commonly used tool to effectively determine a patient's future risk of heart disease and heart attack.
These minimally invasive scans measure how much calcium is already present in the arteries of the heart, so that clinicians can determine if a patient needs medical intervention or other preventative measures, including statin medications.
Now an important new study from heart researchers at Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City finds that routine coronary artery calcium CT scans are also proving to be effective in uncovering other medical issues in patients, some of them life-threatening.
"In nearly one in 10 of these kinds of heart scans, we're finding other possible medical issues," said Brent Muhlestein, MD, co-director of research at Intermountain Medical Center. "They could be nothing, as many abnormalities on these kinds of scans are. But they could be something more significant, as was the case for one study participant who had emergency surgery due to a finding on his CAC CT scan."
The findings are part of the Intermountain CorCal clinical trial, which randomized asymptomatic, otherwise healthy patients to have their risk of developing plaque buildup in their arteries in one of two ways: either through current treatment standards or a CAC CT scan.
Of the 2,284 patients in the Intermountain study who received CAC CT scans, radiologists found other potentially significant medical findings in 247 – or 8.5% – of patients.
More than half of these findings were lung abnormalities, but issues were also found in just about every organ included in the CT scan area, including esophagus, liver, kidney, breast, bone and other parts of the heart.
"These results show that proactive cardiac CT scans may be useful to identify other health issues for patients, beyond cardiac calcium levels," said Dr. Muhlestein.
Findings from the study were presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2025 in in New Orleans.
Of those 247 patients, two thirds were referred for follow up care. Of that group, 23 patients were found to have thoracic aortic aneurysms, which are bulges in the part of the aorta in the chest, larger than 4.5 centimeters.
One of these patients was eight centimeters, which is considered an emergency.
"That patient went into surgery within a week of us finding it," Dr. Muhlestein said. "We're confident in saying we've saved at least one life through this study and that this tool may be useful in other preventive ways."
Previous research from the Intermountain CorCal study has already shown that CAC CT scans may be effective as a way of determining which patients might benefit from statin medication to protect their heart health.
Whether it's worth the time and expense to expand the work of radiologists reading these scans has yet to be determined, said Dr. Muhlestein.
"These findings don't show if every patient who was recommended for follow up care needed it. But the findings from our study are significant enough that it's worth asking that question. We'll continue to explore these findings as a preventive health tool," he said.
