For most people their first indication of heart disease is when they experience a heart attack or die unexpectedly. It is projected that 1/3 of Americans will die of heart disease. Additionally, women are more likely to die of heart disease than men, and ten times more likely to die from heart disease than from breast cancer. For this reason, preventative care and measurements that detect heart disease have become increasingly important. Dr. Matthew Budoff, of the University of California, Los Angeles has developed a method to detect early atherosclerosis - the hardening and narrowing of the arteries due to plaque buildup. This method will enable doctors to detect signs of a problem and treat patients before their first heart attack.  

Dr. Budoff endorses preventative methods to reduce heart disease. Primarily he believes using a CT scan to detect cardiac calcium will help uncover early signs of heart disease in patients. By developing and validating a "mammogram of the heart," doctors can provide appropriate therapy, promote lifestyle and diet changes for patients, and prevent patients from suffering from a premature heart attack, stroke, or cardiac death. Dr. Budoff's lab is the only large lab looking at cardiac calcium scanning as a primary method to screen patients and show the true value of the test. His scan is therefore the most accurate measurement for detecting heart disease and could save millions of lives each year as an important preventative measure.

Dr. Budoff's current research includes:

• Continuing to validate methods to make the CT scan for heart disease an acceptable part of medicine. Validating their work to help understand how effective treatment is, when it is useful, how aggressively heart disease should be treated, and when to treat it, will help prove to patients and providers that the CT scan is indeed effective.

• Dr. Budoff hopes to conduct larger studies that would help to prove definitively what to do with plaque and how effective treatments are for plaques. Large scale studies will foster the support of the medical communities and insurance companies so that the CT scan for early detection will be more widely accepted.