Mammograms could be a new weapon against heart disease

Some health care providers are trying to give mammograms a new purpose — assessing heart disease risks. The practice is not unanimously accepted among health experts, however.

Mammograms are X-ray examinations that detect breast disease, and they’ve helped diminish the United States’ breast cancer mortality rate by almost 40% since 1990. According to Piedmont Healthcare, mammograms can also detect breast arterial calcification — plaque buildup in the breasts’ arteries.

The buildup of plague could be a red flag for coronary heart disease, and health care providers like Washington Radiology are offering mammograms that use artificial intelligence to detect those buildups. Other providers aren’t yet convinced.

“What we’re seeing on the mammogram is calcification in the breast artery, but that’s not the same as the calcification in the coronary artery,” Greg Sorensen, chief science...