Can a mammogram detect heart disease? What to know about breast calcium deposits

A study aims to identify the possible link between calcium deposits in women's breast arteries and life-threatening heart risks.

Nancy Preston didn’t have a heart attack. Nor did she have chest discomfort, shortness of breath or heart palpitations — all symptoms of heart disease. Instead, a routine mammogram led to Preston having quintuple bypass surgery last summer.

“It was just something horrible waiting to happen,” said the 67-year-old from New York City. “I did not have symptoms, except for feeling a little more fatigued than usual, which I attributed to age.”

Preston does have a family history of heart disease. Her mother had a heart attack and a double bypass, and an older sister had a heart attack and has a pacemaker.

Even so, heart disease wasn’t top of mind for Preston, a yoga enthusiast who exercised daily and followed a healthy diet. Her high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes — two conditions that can increase a person’s odds of developing heart disease — had been under control before her health scare, she said.

In October 2024, Preston got her annual mammogram at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York. Doctors detected breast arterial calcifications, or BAC, on Preston’s mammogram.