COOPERSTOWN - Detecting heart disease without causing any pain to the patient. A procedure doctors at Bassett Healthcare are using to do just that.

The 64-slice CT or cat scanner has revolutionized our ability to detect heart disease. It offers a painless way to help doctors diagnose heart disease. Because calcium is a marker of coronary artery disease, the findings of a Cardiac CT scan are expressed in a calcium score.

"We take images of a beating heart, looking for calcium deposition in the arteries..the presence or absence of calcium," said Dr. Dhananjai Menzies, a cardiologist.

Dr. Dhanajai Menzies, a cardiologist at the Bassett Heart Care institute in Cooperstown, says a calcium score under 100 means there is minimal to mild evidence of plaque. Scores over 100 to over 400 typically warrant following up with another test called a CT angiogram.

"The coronary CT angiogram is a procedure where by we inject die into peripheral vein," Menzies said.

The heart muscle a cardiac CT scan is most helpful to patients at intermediate risk for heart disease who have had some symptoms, but for whom a traditional test, such as a stress test came back, inconclusive or ambiguous.

Patients who have heard about heart scans, sometimes called "Fast CT" because the test captures images of a beating heart, like it because it offers a non-invasive way to look at the heart's blood vessels. But Dr. Menzies says it is not appropriate for everyone.

Menzies says especially for a patient who already has coronary artery problems or who has had a heart attack, the time-tested cardiac catheterization is likely the route to go.