TAMPA, Fla. — Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, with one in five Americans dying from it.
“Well, my father passed away at 48 of a heart attack. My mother passed away at 54 with bone cancer. So, I got involved with trying to get myself psyched up to try to beat the odds,” said Victor Giordano.
Giordano is beating the odds despite those genetics. He exercises every day, lifts weights, takes spin classes, and mountain bikes over 30 miles on weekends. He even competes!
“There's mountain bike festivals all throughout the year. And Santos in Ocala State Forest is a 50-mile mountain bike ride. And I've done that several times,” said Giordano.
Along with eating healthy, he thought his heart would be healthy too. But his test results.
“That I was, like, 60 to 70%, clogged. And my widow-maker, you know, the one that goes down the middle, that was clogged as well. And that I needed to go on, like, a heavy statin to try to reverse that or to calcify that,” explained Giordano.
57-year-old Travis Wellman exercises and plays a lot of soccer.
“I eat fairly healthy and stayed active,” said Wellman.
But because he is adopted, Wellman was worried about his genetic history.
“The actual adoption agency that I was adopted from by my parents, burned down. So, all the records burned with it,” explained Wellman.
So, he wanted to check his heart condition, and despite no physical symptoms, his heart was 70% blocked.
“It was very eye-opening because the location is a bad location to have an issue. So, if something were to happen, it would have affected the majority of my heart muscle,” explained Wellman.
“I can take this person, who has a lot of disease, and I can get very aggressive with them and prevent them from having a heart attack,” said Dr. Morales.
Cardiologist Dr. Alberto Morales performed both men's tests at his office, South Tampa Cardiology, since he has one of the newest, state-of-the-art CT Scanners in the country.
It takes over 550 pictures at every angle with the help of medication to slow down a patient’s heart rate.
“And that pause allows us to take pictures, to look at these tiny little arteries as if they're still. And what you need is a sophisticated camera like this, Arineta Spotlight Duo, super-fast rotation speed, meaning it's like a sport camera on steroids,” explained Dr. Morales when talking about the scanner.
The 3D images with contrast detect blockages in the coronary arteries, and where plaque may exist.
Dr. Morales showed ABC Action News Wellman’s first CT scan, with severe blockage. He then showed us a scan from 6 months later, after he took statins.
“You can see, 6 months ago, he had a high grade 70% approximal LAD. Most of this is dark, non-calcified soft plaque. About 6 months after therapy, it's significantly reduced down to less than 50%,” explained Dr. Morales.
The doctor believes these in-depth results with AI makes calcium scores no longer an accurate number alone to determine heart disease.
“If you have a calcium score and it's zero, your perception is you're good. But what I'm seeing is 40% of people with a zero-calcium score actually have coronary artery disease,” said Dr. Morales.
WATCH: New Cardiac CT Scanner could be a game-changer for Tampa Bay area patients
He also claims that stress tests no longer reveal enough data.
“70% of heart attacks today occur in non-obstructive plaques. These are plaques that don't block the blood flow. So even if you perform a stress test, it would be normal,” explained Dr. Morales.
Since Giordano received his results, he’s been taking Repatha, a drug that helps lower cholesterol, and it’s working.
“It dropped my cholesterol, my LDL was 140, I think. And it dropped down to 70, within three months,” said Giordano.
And with these recent results, Giordano said he’ll continue to live life to the fullest.
“What it makes me feel like is that every day is really a gift, you know? I mean, tomorrow's not guaranteed. So, I try to make the best out of it. And that's really my philosophy,” said Giordano.
And Wellman is optimistic about the future as well.
“Hopefully, things can only get better. And we'll find out in six months how far we can push it down,” said Wellman.
Some health insurance companies will pay for this new CT scan. You can also pay out of pocket which runs anywhere from $500 to $700.
You can learn more about the CT scan by clicking here.
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