Executive Screening

Cardiac assessment

It is firmly established that there is a link between the amount of calcium deposited in the coronary arteries (arteries supplying heart muscle) in the condition atherosclerosis and the risk of a heart attack.  The calcium score can assess this with a low (or ideally zero) value assocoiated with the lowest risk.  The scan can detect small amounts of calcium despite a low scanning dose.

Arteries can still contain atheroma with fatty plaques even in vessels with low or negligible calcium deposition.  Traditionally, any associated vessel narrowing and coronary artery anatomy generally was assessed with invasive catheter angiography, which carried risks of vascular damage or stroke.  The latter can be obviated with non-invasive CT Coronary Angiography as an outpatient.  If abnormal, the anatomical picture can help direct interventional therapy like angioplasty and stenting.

Since 2012, the National Institute of Clinical Effectiveness (NICE) has even recommended the technique for assessing stable chest pain thought to be of cardiac origin

Non-invasive large bowel screening

Traditionally, the cornerstone of large bowel assessment has been direct 'optical' colonoscopy using an endoscope but this is relatively invasive typically requiring sedation, and carrying risks associated with bowel perforation and sedation.

In contrast, CT colonography is minimally invasive with virtually no risk of perforation and no sedation is necessary.  Fly-through 'virtual' images of the large bowel are immediately available as well as imaging of structures outside the bowel and more remotely.

Both techniques provide detail of bowel mucosa including polyps and can identify cancer reliably.  Furthermore, new faecal tagging techniques allows for less aggressive bowel cleansing protocols and insufflating bowel with carbon dioxide is more comfortable and rapidly reversible compared to room air.

Pricing Structure

*For cardiac imaging, CT scanning is ideally performed on a 128 slice CT scanner or above with dedicated cardiac software - both requirements are usually declared by the facility but patients are entitled to ask.

These types of scan are best performed in a dedicated facility with immediate access to medical doctors and anaesthetists, should immediate supportive therapy or even resuscitation be required (rare but essential in the unlikely event).