IMT HeartScan^®

LABORATORY RESEARCH PROCEDURE THAT PREDICTS, MEASURES AND MONITORS HEART DISEASE NOW AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY AT Mesuá Dermocosmetic Spa^® IN MIAMI.

THE ONLY ANTI-AGING & LONGEVITY CLINIC WITH DERMATOLOGIST, PLASTIC SURGEON AND GROWTH HORMONE TREATMENT BY NATIONAL RENOWN DOCTORS. THE ONLY ONES IN MIAMI DOING THIS REVOLUTIONARY TEST.

The procedure has been featured on Good Morning America and CNN Today. IMT Heartscan^® actually looks at the presence or absence of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) and predicts with 95% accuracy who is likely to develop CHD within six years of being tested.

IMT (Intima-Media Thickness) is a non-radiation, non-chemical, safe and painless, ultra sound scan of the carotid arteries that is processed and computer-analyzed through proprietary software technology.

• IMT scan can detect subtle, soft, "transient" plaque, the major cause of STROKE.
• IMT scan motivates patients to make behavior or lifestyle changes and comply with Physicians recommendations.
• IMT scan detects minute arterial changes in as little as 6 months allowing the Physicians to better manage patient care and cardiovascular medication.
• The American Heart Association concluded at their Prevention V 2000 Conference that IMT measurement is valid and reliable for predicting cardiovascular disease.
• American Heart Association recommends IMT for everyone over 40 years of age to establish a baseline of their heart disease risk factor.
• IMT scan is inexpensive and provides more clinically relevant data than is available by other modes of evaluating cardiovascular disease.
• IMT HeartScan^® provides plaque tissue analysis of deadly soft and hard calcified plaque, measuring the progression of the actual pathology of heart disease.

History

"IMT HeartScan^®" was developed by a Dutch Cardiologist named Jacques Barth. Dr. Barth came to the USA in 1985 at the invitation of NASA to study cardiac issues involving US astronauts. Dr. Barth and his colleagues began studying the correlation between the thickness of the Intima-Media wall of the interior common carotid artery and the presence of artheroscleratic heart disease. Over a thirteen year period their research concluded that there was a 95 % correlation between the thickness of the Intima-Media and the presence or absence of heart disease when adjusted for age, sex, and ethnicity. Although others were coming to this conclusion too, the secret to IMT HeartScan's^® predictive capability was the accuracy whith which they measured the carotid. Unlike the usual method of measurement in ultrasound which used "calipers" to measure the thickness, Dr. Barth developed a proprietary software program which measured four times more accurately than the "caliper method". As a result, the data base of patients built by Dr. Barth over the course of his research offers the most accurate, reliable measurements available. That database now is over 40,000 patients strong.

As a large Pharmaceutical companies learned of Dr. Barth's technique, they began to incorporate his scan as a surrogate-end point for the effectiveness of their lipid-lowering drugs. In the year 2000, The American Heart Association TM looked at IMT measurement and in their "Prevention V Conference" pronounced it as "valid and reliable" and recommended it to be performed on asymptomatic patients over 20. Dr. Barth now felt it was time to bring the scan from research to practical use in medicine.

Ultrasound scans take from 10 to 15 minutes to perform and are analyzed by Dr. Barth's lab in Los Angeles. Results are available within 5 days and returned in a format that looks like a school report card with scores between A and E. Studies have shown that when a patient actually sees a picture of their carotid artery they have a much greater propensity to follow the physician's instructions, whether it be diet and exercise or taking their medications. Because IMT can measure subtle changes within a six-month period, it can be used to help doctors better monitor cardiovascular medications.

For further information, read the scientific articles on the subject: (Adobe Reader Required)

• Watch Dr. Barth's interview on CNN - Good Morning America (17MB)
• An Update on Carotid Ultrasound Measurement of Intima-Media Thickness
  (353KB)
• Effect of Atorvastatin (80 mg) and Simvastatin (40 mg) on Plasma Fibrinogen Levels and on Carotid Intima Media Thickness in patients With Familial Hypercholesterolemia
  (302KB)
• Intima-media thickness: a new tool for diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular risk
  (1.2MB)
• Carotid Artery Intima-Media Thickness Measured by Ultrasonography in Normal Clinical Practice Correlates Well With Atherosclerosis Risk Factors
  (54KB)
• Increased Carotid Artery Intimal-Medial Thickness in Asymptomatic Older Subjects With Exercise-Induced Myocardial Ischemia
  (130KB)