Cardiovascular disease builds silently for years. By the time you feel something, it has often been growing for a decade. A 45-minute scan can show what your body isn't telling you.
Cardiovascular disease does not build up to a warning. It builds up to an event.
of people having a first heart attack had no documented symptoms beforehand.
or more of heart attacks occur in people with no prior symptoms or known coronary artery disease.
mortality once an abdominal aortic aneurysm ruptures — and most stay silent until they do.
This is the distinction that matters, and almost nobody explains it.
A cholesterol number tells you plaque is likely. An ultrasound tells you whether it is there, how much, and where. You can have a clean lipid panel and significant carotid plaque at the same time — bloodwork cannot see it, because bloodwork does not look.
None of these announce themselves. All are visible on ultrasound. All are manageable when caught early — and dangerous when they are not. What we look for on each scan, and what counts as significant.
Plaque builds in the carotid arteries — the vessels that supply blood to your brain — for years without symptoms. When a piece breaks loose, it causes a stroke. Up to 80 percent of strokes are preventable, according to the American Heart Association. This scan shows you where you stand.
Your heart's pumping function, valve performance, and wall motion are invisible without imaging. A reduced ejection fraction or leaking valve can exist for years before symptoms appear. An echocardiogram sees it clearly — a routine EKG does not.
An abdominal aortic aneurysm has an 81% mortality rate when it ruptures — and gives no warning beforehand. It takes 30 minutes to screen for it. Men over 65 who have ever smoked are at highest risk, but it affects non-smokers and women too.
DVT kills by traveling to the lungs. Swollen ankles, leg heaviness, or mild discomfort are easy to dismiss — and often are. A venous duplex maps your leg veins completely, detecting clots before they move.
PAD is caused by the same plaque buildup that causes heart attacks — just in the legs. It raises your risk of heart attack and stroke significantly and often presents as leg cramps or fatigue that patients dismiss as aging. It isn't aging.
Narrowed renal arteries reduce blood flow to the kidneys and are a common cause of difficult-to-control high blood pressure. This is rarely checked for in standard care — and rarely suspected until kidney function begins to decline.
None of these means something is wrong. Each one raises the odds enough that finding out early is worth 45 minutes.
Not sure where you land? Take the Health Score quiz — free, two minutes, no signup.
People put this off because they are afraid of what it might say. Here is what each result actually gives you.
A normal scan is not a wasted scan. It is the measurement every future scan gets compared against. Cardiovascular disease is a story about change over time — a carotid wall that thickened, an aorta that widened a few millimetres. You cannot detect change without a first measurement, and most people reach their sixties having never had one.
That is the entire point. Findings at this stage are typically monitored or managed, not operated on. An aneurysm below the surgical threshold gets an imaging interval. Early plaque changes the conversation with your physician about blood pressure and lipids. The alternative was never “no problem” — it was the same problem, found later.
Your report goes to you in plain language, to share with any physician you choose. We do not treat, prescribe, or replace your doctor — we give you and your doctor something to work from.
BlackPoint is not a health-fair screening service. Every study follows the clinical protocols used in accredited hospital imaging departments.
Every study is performed personally by our sonographer — registered in both cardiac and vascular sonography, with nearly 20 years of hospital imaging experience.
Every study is interpreted by Dr. Glenn Gandelman, MD, MPH, FACC, FASE — IAC-accredited. Not a technician summary. A physician read, with real measurements.
The complete set of views, measurements, and Doppler assessments a hospital lab performs — not an abbreviated health-fair screening.
The same class of ultrasound system used in accredited diagnostic imaging departments — brought to you, rather than the other way round.
BlackPoint Membership is $29 a month and takes $100 off every study we offer, at the imaging center or on-site, with no limit on how many. Cardiovascular disease doesn't take months off, and monitoring a known finding usually means coming back.
Book a single scan, take the Health Score quiz, or explore a monthly membership. Any of those is a better choice than waiting.
