Calcium levels may give heart attack clues

Calcium contributes to the hard "plaque" deposits that fur up the walls of diseased arteries causing them to narrow.

When this results in insufficient blood flow it can lead to heart

attacks or angina chest pains.

Traditional methods of assessing heart attack risk involve totting up factors such as age, high blood pressure, and levels of blood cholesterol.

The new research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, shows that adding a calcium score to the process significantly improves accuracy.

Coronary Artery Calcium Score is obtained by carrying out a computed tomography heart scan to reveal levels of calcium in artery walls.