Screening for Heart Disease

Dr Robinson is an expert in the screening of patients for underlying coronary disease.

Heart disease remains the most common cause of death in the UK. Unfortunately the commonest cause of death, heart attack, may have no prior warning. Screening to assess who may be at risk of heart attack or sudden death is therefore vital. Since 2003 Dr Robinson has treated many patients with heart attacks using emergency angioplasty and stent insertion. He feels strongly that many of these heart attacks could have been prevented with better screening and management of risk factors.

Detection and modulation of risk factors will reduce the risk of heart attack and sudden death. These factors include smoking, high cholesterol, hypertension, obesity, lack of exercise, diabetes and stress. Once detected the risk factors can be addressed with lifestyle measures and if necessary medication to treat a high cholesterol or high blood pressure.

Dr Robinson is highly experienced in the role of CT angiography and ‘Calcium Scoring’ of the coronary arteries to help with screening. Calcium scoring is a very useful way to detect early disease in the walls of the heart arteries. This assessment of the risk of an individual is a very useful additional tool which is now available to determine those who are at high risk due to the presence of early ‘silent’ disease of the heart arteries. This enables a more ‘targeted’ approach to treating patients at high risk.