With the rising costs of health care and insurance, it only makes sense to try to keep your body in optimal health. Unfortunately, despite your best intentions, some very serious health issues can arise. Scarily, many of these can slowly damage your body or even kill you with little or no symptoms beforehand. Luckily, though, preventive health screenings can offer a quick overview of your risk of heart attack, stroke, abdominal aneurysms, or osteoporosis.
Why Get Screened?
Many cardiovascular diseases are symptomless until a catastrophic event such as a stroke or ruptured aneurysm takes place. Therefore, millions of people are unaware that they are at risk of death from these vascular disorders. A preventive screening can identify your risk for heart attack or stroke and can provide your physician with valuable information helpful to your treatment.
What Diseases Will Be Screened?
Most preventive health screenings will include identifying risk for stroke, heart disease, osteoporosis, peripheral arterial disease, arterial stiffening, and other life threatening conditions.
How Are the Screenings Conducted?
Skilled technicians will use FDA approved Color Doppler Ultrasound technology and advanced computer oscillometry, both of which are painless and non invasive, to screen for these various diseases. Ultrasound scanning of the carotid arteries, located on each side of the neck, is the best predictor of heart attack and stroke risk. Through the ultrasound, the technician can monitor blood flow velocity and look for plaque buildup, both of which increase your risk for stroke.
You will also be screened for peripheral arterial disease (PAD), a condition where plaque blocks or slows blood flow and which, if left untreated, can cause gangrene and amputation. To determine the presence of PAD, the Ankle Brachial test will be performed. Blood pressure cuffs will be placed on the ankles and arms. The difference in blood pressure between the two will provide a ratio that determines whether you have PAD, another commonly symptomless condition.
The screening will also include identifying osteoporosis, a major health threat for 44 million Americans. Left untreated, this condition, which causes the bones to become fragile, can result in a fracture. While breaks in the spine and wrist are not uncommon, fractures are most commonly seen in the hip, and can cause prolonged disability or even death. To determine your risk for decreased bone density, the technician will ultrasound your heel, whose bones most closely resemble the bone found in the hip.
The technician will also test for an aortic aneurysm, which occurs when the aortic wall weakens due to age, genetics, or high blood pressure. If this weak spot ruptures, which is extremely painful, up to 90 percent of patients will die shortly after arriving at the hospital. To screen for this life threatening condition, ultrasound will be used to identify a bulging or weak spot in the aortic wall.
Stiffening of the arteries can also be detected using this screening technology. This stiffness causes the heart to work harder, and according to the American Vascular Association, can cause as much disability and death as heart disease. Developing as early as childhood, arterial stiffness is not usually diagnosed until it has progressed to a dangerous point.
It is easy to see how preventive screening can save you and your family the devastating effects of these conditions. All it takes is a little bit of your time, and because mobile screening companies routinely offer these tests at local gyms, churches, or community centers, it is also very convenient.
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