Arterial Calcifications

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Member_of_the_Club
Member_of_the_Club Member Posts: 3,646
edited June 2014 in Life After Breast Cancer
Arterial Calcifications
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  • Member_of_the_Club
    Member_of_the_Club Member Posts: 3,646
    edited February 2008

    I'm just now focusing on this. During my last mammogram I was flagged for a biopsy with a birads 4 reading. When they hooked me up to a digital mammgram (which they will use for now on with me) they saw that the calcifications were benign. Focusing on the report I see that they were arterial calcifications and Dr. Google tells me this could be a sign of heart disease. I have trouble believing I have clogged arteries -- I am physically fit, my cholesterol is great and I've been a vegetarian for 25 years -- however heart disease does run in my family (which is probably why I exercise and watch what I eat).



    Does anyone know anything about this? Should I follow up?

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  • roseg
    roseg Member Posts: 3,133
    edited February 2008

    the blurb I read suggests:

    "It's age-related," says Hedvig Hricak, MD, PhD, chairman of the department of radiology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. "The findings show that breast arterial calcifications occur in an age-related manner, so that isn't particularly surprising. I think you would find calcium in the arteries of most 70-year-olds, thus at that age the clinical significance is probably minimal. "But if these calcifications occur in a 40-year-old then it would be something that her primary care physician should know about because it could indicate early heart disease," said Dr. Hricak. She notes that women are more circumspect about getting mammograms then they are "about getting regular checkups with their internists, so they could have other risk factors that are undetected." 

    It doesn't seem like there is that much more you can do.  Perhaps breast cancer treatments -chemo, radiation- have "aged" you a little so your normal is a bit different from others. 

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  • Member_of_the_Club
    Member_of_the_Club Member Posts: 3,646
    edited February 2008

    Whoa . . . I'm 45. I tried googling the idea of radiation causing this and didn't find anything. I will definitely ask my doctor(s) about this.

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