Maryland Is Now Checking Your Heart During Your Mammogram
Since October 1, Maryland mammography centers must notify patients in their results letter if their scan shows calcium deposits in the breast arteries. Maryland is the first state to require the disclosure. Those deposits are linked to higher risk of heart attack, heart failure, and stroke.
Heart disease is women’s leading cause of death. Women are far more likely to get a routine mammogram than any kind of cardiac screening. Maryland’s law creates a connection between the two, using a touchpoint that already exists to surface a risk that often goes undetected until a cardiac event occurs.
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There is one significant caveat: no clinical trial has yet shown that acting on the finding prevents a heart event. Researchers and clinicians are still working out what patients and their doctors should do with the information.
Calcium deposits in the breast arteries, called breast arterial calcification or BAC, are distinct from the microcalcifications associated with cancer risk. Radiologists can see them on standard mammograms, but until Maryland’s law there was no requirement to disclose them to patients. Reporting standards have varied widely across imaging centers.
The premise of the law is that surfacing the information, even before clinical guidance on next steps is fully established, gives women and their physicians something to act on. Whether lifestyle changes, medication, or more frequent cardiac monitoring can translate that signal into better outcomes remains an active area of research.
Source: Maryland General Assembly, HB 1364, 2026 Regular Session. Effective October 1, 2026.