Now I know my risk of a heart attack ... it’s ZERO

I’M NOT what you’d call an obvious candidate for a heart attack, writes Health Editor BARNEY CALMAN. At 10st, my weight is normal for my height (5ft 8in). I don’t smoke, I don’t drink much and I try to go to the gym but I probably eat way too much cheese. I’m 40 this year.

My father, 73, has suffered severe angina and there’s family history of high blood pressure.

So when I was offered the chance to have a CTCA, which costs about £500 privately, I was confident – but not sure – I’d be given the all-clear.

The test took about five minutes. First, while lying on a bed, an IV needle was inserted into an arm vein. A special contrast dye was injected into a blood vessel and travelled around the bloodstream. Because X-rays cannot pass through the dye, it helped create a highly detailed image of the heart and arteries.

The scanner creates a 3D image of the heart and surrounding blood vessels, which shows soft plaques and hardened calcium deposits, their position and whether they are causing blockages. The scan gives a ‘calcium score’, which can be zero if no calcium is detected. Anything between one and 100 is deemed low risk, 101 to 300 is intermediate risk, over 300 is high risk.

My results? ‘Completely clear – zero heart attack risk,’ I was told. ‘Have a glass of wine to celebrate.’ So I did.