The CardioHealth Advanced Program
The CardioHealth Advanced program identifies cardiovascular disease far before the conventional medical approach “risk factors based” assessment. In fact, the conventional risk factor based evaluation for cardiovascular disease misses 50% of patients with cardiovascular disease.1 Doing things like regular doctor’s office visits, getting your cholesterol checked, making sure you aren’t diabetic and controlling your blood sugar, and not smoking are all good things. However, they don’t guarantee that you won’t have a heart attack. In fact, they can lead to a false sense of security!
If you want to know your REAL risk of cardiovascular disease then you need to dig deeper. You need additional testing. You need to know exactly where you are. This starts with the CardioHealth 101 program which consists of 3 simple, quick, and relatively inexpensive tests performed in our clinic. These 3 tests are:
- Endothelial function assessment
- CV Profile for arterial elasticity
- Carotid Intima-Media Thickness (CIMT) testing
These are great tests and an excellent place to start but that may not be enough for you. You may want more reassurance that your blood vessels are healthy. You simply may need more information. That is why we developed the CardioHealth Advanced Program.
What Is Included in the CardioHealth Advanced Program?
- Everything in the CardioHealth 101 program
- an EKG to assess for electrical abnormalities in your heart as well as abnormal heart beats and patterns
- Central blood pressure assessment which is a much better reflection of the strain on your heart as well as your risk of cardiovascular disease
- Labs assessing your kidney function, blood sugar, homocysteine, and lipids (cholesterol) – you need to be fasting for these labs.
- COSEHC Score which calculates your risk of dying of cardiovascular disease within the next 5 years
- An Ankle-Brachial Index (ABI) which checks for Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) or atherosclerosis in your abdominal aorta, iliac arteries, and arteries in your legs
Adding the CardioHealth Advanced program dramatically expands the amount of information we obtain about your cardiovascular health an risk for heart attack (or stroke). Plus, it only adds a small cost – not even half the cost of the CardioHealth 101. The price of the ABI alone covers the additional cost of the CardioHealth Advanced over the cost of the CardioHealth 101.
Of course, you can always start with the CardioHealth 101 and we can add the CardioHealth Advanced tests at any time. However, I firmly believe that the amount of additional information about your cardiovascular system makes the small price difference a non-issue.
The CardioHealth Advanced program is a lot more information and far less expensive than any other cardiovascular screening program than any other cardiovascular screening program out there. Certainly, there are less expensive tests but they don’t provide anywhere near the information and they don’t detect cardiovascular disease early enough.
While the CardioHealth Advanced screening is sufficient for most people, some of our patients want the absolute best they can get. If that is you then you need to look at the CardioHealth Platinum program.
Whichever program you choose, don’t wait another day to schedule your CardioHealth screening. You never know when cardiovascular disease may strike!
References:
- J Am College of Cardiology 2017;70(24):2979-91