​ ASA Physical Status Classification System

The ASA Physical Status Classification System has been in use for over 60 years. The purpose of the system is to assess and communicate a patient’s pre-anesthesia medical co-morbidities. The classification system alone does not predict the perioperative risks, but used with other factors (eg, type of surgery, frailty, level of deconditioning), it can be helpful in predicting perioperative risks.

 A Harvard Scientist Thinks He Has a Gene Test for Heart Attack Risk. He Wants to Give It Away Free.

Whether Kathiresan can really pull off a low-cost version in a medical system that is optimized to make money is as big a question as whether the test is ready for prime time.

 Can Cardiac Screenings Save the Lives of Young Athletes?

An EKG exam could help detect heart disease in young athletes. Or it could send parents down a costly road of expensive follow-up exams that lead nowhere.

 Heart Screening For Teens May Cause More Problems Than It Solves

Dozens of not-for-profit organizations have formed in the past decade to promote free or low-cost heart screenings for teens. The groups often claim such tests save lives by finding abnormalities that might pose a risk of sudden cardiac death. But the efforts are raising concerns. There's no evidence that screening adolescents with electrocardiograms prevents deaths.

 The Dangers of Too Many Heart Tests

When do you really need to be screened for heart disease, and with which tests?

 The ECG in the new Apple Watch is a potential healthcare headache

The classic criticism of screenings is the increased likelihood of false positives, when a mistake or flaw in a test means you're diagnosed with a disease you don't actually have. "A poor test could create thousands of false positives and overburden the health service such that people who really do have a heart condition can't get to see a doctor...

 What Personal Genome Testing Can and Can't Do

As for personal genome service testing, actionable results with measurable outcome differences are still limited. But that is true for most medical knowledge, and yet we absorb everything we can for what ails us, so why not add genetics?

A Heart Risk Factor Even Doctors Know Little About

Dr. Lloyd-Jones at Northwestern said that testing for lp(a) should be considered for people with early-onset cardiovascular disease — which means younger than age 50 for men and age 60 for women — or a strong family history of it. Since high lp(a) is hereditary, those who have it often have a parent, sibling or grandparent who suffered a premature heart attack or stroke. When one person has it, it’s important to test other family members too.

Blood Tests to Determine Risk of Coronary Artery Disease

These blood tests help to determine your risk for coronary artery disease and heart attack and guide your treatment.

Hospitals promote screenings that experts say most people should not receive

Hospitals hoping to attract patients and build goodwill are teaming up with medical-screening companies to promote tests they say might prevent deadly strokes or heart disease. What their promotions don’t say is that an influential government panel recommends against many of the tests for people without symptoms or risk factors. The panel says such screenings find too few problems to outweigh the drawbacks, which include false positive results and unnecessary follow-up procedures and surgery. Other medical experts warn that the tests could needlessly raise health-care spending.

Stress Test or 3-D Scan? And the Best Heart Exam Is ...

In a landmark medical clash pitting the diagnostic merits of fancy tech versus vintage exercise machines, the new toys and old ways finished in a dead heat, cardiologists reported Saturday. The first showdown pitting 3-D, heart-imaging exams against older stress tests atop treadmills or stationary bikes found that among 10,003 heart patients, their rates of eventually having serious heart events were the same — no matter which method doctors used to check their tickers, researchers said.