WESTON, Fla. – Women have yet another reason to get those annual mammograms.
The screenings may provide clues about the risk for heart disease.
Dr. David Wolinksy, a cardiologist with Cleveland Clinic Weston said that a recent California study found that women who show a buildup of calcium within the arteries of the breast are at a 51-percent higher risk of heart disease and stroke than women who do not have breast calcification.
“Now in this study, many of these women were already on statins so they were on the right treatment. But this may be an indication for your doctor to say, ‘Hey let’s recheck your cholesterol or get a coronary artery calcium score and look at see a little more deeply what your absolute risk is,’ ” Wolinsky said.
Researchers hope their study will encourage an update of the guidelines for reporting breast arterial calcification found during routine mammograms.
And a comparative study found that breast cancer screening with 3D mammography has an approximately 7-percent lower chance of false-positive findings compared with standard digital mammography.
Because the difference is small, researchers said the findings are a reminder that physicians should caution patients that false positives are a possibility even with the advanced technology