The first reaction of a person with chest pain would be to rush to the hospital, but once he reaches the emergency room he might spend up to 24 hours waiting for tests to tell if a heart attack really is brewing or if it's something less grim. If the doctor has the facility of computerized heart scan, it might give him a quicker picture of clogged arteries to help determine who can go home and who needs care. If these souped-up CT scans pan out and major studies of several thousand chest-pain sufferers are to begin soon they may do more than send the worried well home faster. According to Dr. James Goldstein of William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak when the patients actually see the 3-D pictures of gunk-filled arteries, the impact is much more and they are motivated to change their heart-risky behaviors better than lecturing them about high blood pressure or cholesterol. Beaumont researchers studied 197 chest pain sufferers considered at low risk of a heart attack, giving half the souped-up CT scan. The noninvasive test either ruled in or ruled out heart disease in 75 percent, helping to decide who really needed to be hospitalized 11 hours faster than with routine testing.

Finding clean arteries or very blocked ones makes for an easy diagnosis. But if the clog is medium-sized, is it causing the chest pain and does it need immediate treatment? A CT alone won't be enough to tell, notes Hoffmann.
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