Can You Reverse Heart Disease? What My Plaque Scans Showed | Dr Campbell Rogers

What It Covers

Interventional cardiologist Campbell Rogers explains how HeartFlow's AI analysis of coronary CT angiograms can quantify plaque volume and composition with far greater precision than standard calcium scoring or traditional CT reads. The episode uses host Simon Hill's two personal scans, taken 16 months apart, to demonstrate how this technology can detect early disease and track treatment response.

Key Questions Answered

• •Calcium Score Zero ≠ No Disease: A coronary artery calcium score of zero reliably predicts low short-term cardiovascular risk but cannot rule out the presence of non-calcified plaque. Two conclusions must be separated: prognosis and disease presence. Patients with a zero score and high-risk profiles — strong family history, elevated ApoB, genetic predisposition — may still benefit from a full CT angiogram to detect soft, non-calcified plaque invisible to calcium scoring.
• •Plaque Percentile Over Absolute Volume: HeartFlow benchmarks individual plaque volume against a database of nearly 300,000 patients, stratified by age and sex. A raw number like 116 cubic millimeters means little in isolation; knowing it places a 38-year-old male in the 89th percentile for his demographic is clinically actionable. This age- and sex-adjusted percentile framing is the correct lens for interpreting personal plaque burden and deciding treatment aggressiveness.
• •Non-Calcified Plaque Drives Risk More Than Calcified Plaque: Current evidence, including the 2025 American College of Cardiology scientific statement, identifies total non-calcified plaque volume as the strongest imaging-based predictor of future heart attack risk. A subset called low-attenuation plaque carries additional risk signals, though the magnitude of that additional risk above overall non-calcified plaque remains under investigation. Tracking non-calcified volume over time is therefore the most clinically relevant serial measurement.
• •AI Plaque Analysis Validated Against Intravascular Ultrasound: HeartFlow's coronary plaque analysis has been prospectively validated against intravascular ultrasound — the invasive gold standard — at the individual lesion level, covering a range from small to large plaque volumes. The comparison was conducted in a fully blinded, prospective design and published in peer-reviewed literature. Serial scans separated by at least two years, performed on the same scanner with the same protocol, provide the most reliable change detection.
• •Plaque Regression Is Measurable and Clinically Meaningful: A 65-patient randomized trial published in JAMA Cardiology in early 2025 demonstrated that HeartFlow's plaque analysis detected statistically significant differences in plaque progression between two prostate cancer drug regimens within one year. This shows the tool is sensitive enough to detect treatment-driven plaque changes in small cohorts, supporting its use as a surrogate endpoint in cardiovascular drug trials and as a guide for individual lipid-lowering therapy decisions.
• •Who Should Consider a CT Angiogram Plus AI Analysis: Three groups warrant the most serious consideration: patients with chest pain or exertional symptoms (guideline class 1A); asymptomatic individuals with a calcium score between 1 and roughly 300, where treatment intensity is ambiguous; and high-risk asymptomatic individuals — pilots, first responders, those with strong family history or persistently elevated ApoB despite lifestyle optimization. Currently, insurance does not cover this for asymptomatic patients, making it an out-of-pocket decision.