Western Australian researchers using bone scans to predict heart attack or stroke

Researchers in Western Australia are using bone scans to predict a person's likelihood of having a heart attack or stroke.

Researchers at Edith Cowan University discovered a routine scan of the spine picked up calcium in a major artery in the abdomen.

The presence of calcium in an artery can lead to cardio vascular disease, heart attack and stroke.

"That was sort of my Ah-ha moment," ECU Associate Professor Josh Lewis told 9News.

"There's where I went okay, we can actually let people know, let the GPs know, let the patients know and really make a difference."

Endocrinologist Professor Richard Prince has labelled the discovery a major step forward in screening.

9News has been told the health discovery is so new there are not enough trained experts to assess the scans, which is time-consuming and expensive.

Researchers are attempting to alleviate that problem by developing a software that scans the scans.

"Once the computer is trained to do that task, then typically we'd be expecting it do to it at the rate of 100 if not 1000 times a second," ECU Professor David Suter told 9News.

The new scan could be available to patients in about five years.