![]() This may be a reasonable risk to take if the chance of stroke caused by the carotid narrowing is high. However, there are risks associated with the surgery used to clear the blockage - not least, ironically, a stroke. This is a useful test for people who have had a stroke, because if they have significant narrowing on the scan, an operation to clear this can reduce the future risk of stroke due to narrowed arteries. ![]() Take for example scanning the carotid artery - the main artery in the neck - which Life Line Scanning offers to completely well people. The company has previously told the BMJ that it believes its adverts are fair and accurate. There are also several ongoing research collaborations that will produce additional research, knowledge and engagement." "Our clinical team just recently presented at the XXV World Congress of the International Union of Angiology in Prague with original research and have published in several journals including the Journal of Vascular Surgery and the Annals of Surgery. "We are deeply involved in research into the utility of screening," said the company's director of operations Dara Jordan. Life Line Screening has declined to respond specifically to my concerns about its adverts, but did say that it is involved in researching the screening it does. ![]() As a letter to my home address from the company said, "you don't usually get these tests on the NHS unless you have symptoms" and, "if anything is revealed we tell you straight away so treatment can be prescribed by your own GP." I think this is misleading, unfair, and alarmist advertising. No wonder I, and many other GPs, see a steady stream of Life Line Screening's customers and their results at our surgeries. No matter how healthy you might think you are, it could save your life." Strong stuff. Not only is there an ethical imperative on doctors to give fair information about screening - Britain's General Medical Council says that doctors should base their medical care on the "best available evidence" - but there is also reason to think that if people had fair information about the pros and cons, they might choose not to have it.Īnd so to Life Line Screening, its dramatic claims, and adverts containing persuasive testaments from satisfied customers: "I recommend this to anyone. We know, for example, that when men are given better information about PSA screening, fewer want it. Because of these inherent problems, people need to make good choices about whether to be screened based on evidence. So screening is often counterintuitive and harmful. This led Richard Albin, who discovered PSA, to tell the New York Times that screening for it had been a "public health disaster" in the US. These might be acceptable risks if the treatment was death-delaying, but most prostate cancers don't kill and the evidence suggests that PSA screening does not reduce death rates. We've seen this in prostate cancer screening: initial enthusiasm for PSA (prostate-specific antigen) screening was followed by the realisation that around a third of men operated on would suffer impotence as a result and a fifth would have incontinence. Noninvasive tests may cause few hazards, but the way the knowledge from a positive or negative scan is used may result in harm to the patient for no benefit. There is a risk of false positives, false negatives and false reassurance, and the problem of sometimes giving people a diagnosis they don't need, or subjecting them to treatment they won't benefit from. But screening - testing well people as opposed to people who already feel unwell or who have symptoms, like a lump, or palpitations - always has the potential to harm, and is a constant balance of pros and cons. The NHS offers many screening programmes, from the heelprick test for newborn babies to breast screening for women over 50. Isn't it good for us, too? As a GP, shouldn't I be in favour of measures to spot serious illnesses early? The sentiment seems logical, but screening can be anything but. The company claims to have screened half a million UK citizens in 1,900 UK venues since it came over from the US in 2007. If (slot) slot.addService(googletag.It typically floods a local area with personally addressed letters of invitation to a temporary clinic, typically in a church hall, providing ultrasound, ECG, blood testing and scans for "osteoporosis risk". (function (a, d, o, r, i, c, u, p, w, m) Ultrasound Health Checks: The Life Line Screening - The Jerusalem Post
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