Cardiac CT Calcium Score

Coronary artery calcium scoring performed on a 128-slice CT scanner. Quantifies calcified plaque burden in the coronary arteries using the Agatston scoring method. A non-invasive, low-radiation test that stratifies 10-year cardiovascular event risk and helps guide preventive treatment decisions.

The cardiac CT calcium score is a focused, non-contrast examination of the heart that takes approximately 10-15 minutes of actual scan time on Medicover Hospital's 128-slice CT scanner. The scanner acquires ECG-gated images during a single breath-hold, then dedicated software quantifies the total calcium burden across the left anterior descending, left circumflex, right coronary, and left main coronary arteries using the Agatston scoring method. The resulting score is categorised as zero (no identifiable plaque), 1-99 (mild plaque), 100-399 (moderate plaque), or 400+ (extensive plaque). This stratification has strong evidence for reclassifying cardiovascular risk — a score of zero in an asymptomatic patient is associated with very low 10-year event rates, while high scores may prompt more aggressive lipid management or further investigation with coronary CT angiography. Medicover also offers coronary CT angiography at 1,560 PLN (with LV function assessment at 1,580 PLN), which provides anatomical visualisation of the coronary arteries including non-calcified and mixed plaques, stenosis grading, and vessel wall characterisation. The 128-slice detector count allows rapid acquisition with relatively low radiation doses. The calcium score is particularly useful as a standalone preventive test for asymptomatic individuals aged 40-75 with intermediate cardiovascular risk, complementing traditional risk factor assessment with a direct measure of subclinical atherosclerosis.