The University of Kansas Health System is treating a total of 54 COVID patients today, same as yesterday. Other significant numbers:
- 29 with the active virus today, down from 31 yesterday
- 5 in ICU, same as yesterday
- 1 on a ventilator, 2 yesterday
- 25 hospitalized but out of acute infection phase, up from 23 yesterday
Key points from today’s guests:
Shirley Verbenec, nurse practitioner, The University of Kansas Health System
- Anybody who has any risk factors for heart disease is a candidate to get the get the score.
- Those risk factors could include family history, smoking, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol.
- Your heart has hard plaque and soft plaque and this test detects hard plaque.
- The plaque is not reversable, but we can prevent progression of plaque which could prevent a heart attack or blockage.
- The test is not always covered by insurance, however the cost of it is about the same as a co-pay (about $45).
Kaye Ness, CardioScore consultant & exercise specialist, The University of Kansas Health System
- The test will measure the calcification (hardening) of the plaque with a score.
- Genetics is a piece of the puzzle when it comes to heart plaque, but we can also help reduce our risk and slow down plaque progression with a healthy lifestyle, diet, and exercise.
- For cholesterol levels, there are some things that we just we cannot control and genetics is one of them and that can affect your cholesterol numbers.
- Many people have a family history of high cholesterol and have problems keeping it at goal despite a healthy lifestyle.
Jill Chadwick, patient (and also Director of Media Relations and the Medical News Network, The University of Kansas Health System)
- Inspired by her husband, who previously got this test, to also receive this test.
- She had concerns because of some family history of heart problems.
- The test itself is a CT scan of the chest and only takes about five minutes, then reading the results takes another five minutes.
- Both she and her husband had scores of 0, indicating no hard plague, however they have very different body types. What it looks like on the outside is not a perfect indicator of what is happening inside the body.
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control, The University of Kansas Health System
- On Merck’s donation of 100,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine to Uganda’s outbreak, this is a different strain than a previous one, so it will be important to see if this donated vaccine helps.
- Separately, the bivalent COVID booster for six months and older is still undergoing further tests and data analysis and that may be causing a delay in becoming available. So far, all of the data suggests it is safe.
Friday, October 28 at 8:00 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. We’ll go behind the scenes to share the story of the medical team who helped add months to the life of a beloved animal at the Kansas City Zoo.
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