Notifying patients and their clinicians about incidental coronary calcium findings can encourage shared decision-making on preventive therapies and significantly boost statin use among high-risk individuals. Each year, tens of millions of chest computed tomography (CT) scans are performed, yet valuable data on coronary calcium often remain unused — an untapped opportunity to enhance cardiovascular prevention.

In this interview, Drs. Glenn Hirsch and Alexander Sandhu discuss how screening previously acquired non-gated chest CTs can help improve statin prescription rates and optimize preventive care.

Related References:

1. Sandhu AT, Rodriguez F, Ngo S, et al. Incidental coronary artery calcium: opportunistic screening of previous nongated chest computed tomography scans to improve statin rates (NOTIFY-1 Project). Circulation 2023;147:703-14. 
2. Peng AW, Dudum R, Jain SS, et al. Association of coronary artery calcium detected by routine ungated CT imaging with cardiovascular outcomes. J Am Coll Cardiol 2023;82:1192-1202.