CHICAGO - Giving patients an electronic snapshot of early heart disease may not convince them to take healthy living steps to prevent things from getting worse, researchers reported recently.

　　Doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington said they reached the conclusion after a study involving 450 Army men and women aged 39 to 45, some of whom were given electron beam tomography, a scan of the heart and blood vessels that can detect calcium deposits in the coronary arteries.

　　None of those in the study had overt symptoms indicating heart problems.

　　After one year those who had the electronic test and were given visible evidence in picture form of the extent of early calcium buildup had not changed diet or other lifestyle behavior any more than those who underwent traditional exams, said the study.

　　The findings show the electronic scan "does not substantially affect coronary risk profile. We measured change in modifiable behaviors at one year, a reasonable period after attempting to activate a patient to change lifestyle."

　　The study was published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association along with an editorial commenting on it in which Philip Greenland, a physician at Northwestern University, said the report showed it takes more than test results to motivate patients.

　　"Despite well-defined strategies for reducing (heart disease) risk factors, clinicians find that many patients at risk appear to lack the interest or motivation to undertake intensive risk factor treatment efforts," he said.

　　"Awareness studies show that even now large proportions of Americans have never had risk factors measured, and many who have had these measured do not achieve acceptable levels of control," he added.

　　What it may take, he suggested, is intensive management on a case-by-case basis.