CT scans are better at predicting a middle-aged person’s risk for a heart disease, such as a heart attack, than genetics, reports a new study from the Northwestern University, USA. Currently, conventional measures of risk-factor levels, such as blood pressure and cholesterol, are used by doctors to determine a person’s likelihood of developing coronary heart disease or blockages of the arteries in the heart. But some people may experience a heart attack, or related heart problem, without one of those conventional factors picking it up. The new Northwestern study directly compares genetics and CT scans for coronary artery calcium and demonstrates that the CT scan does a better job than genetics at predicting risk for heart disease in middle age. The findings support recommendations to consider CT screening to calculate risk for heart disease in middle-aged patients when their degree of risk is uncertain or in the intermediate range.