LEWISTON – A new $1.7 million scanner capable of producing better-than-ever images of the heart and its arteries discovers otherwise unseen problems that might lead to heart attacks.

Of the 35 or so local people whose hearts have been examined by the gadget – a process called a “coronary computed tomographic angiography” – several have discovered severe blockages, said Cindy Harradon, director of Medical Imaging at Central Maine Medical Center.

John Whitehouse believes it might have saved his life.

“It’s a remarkable test,” said the 54-year-old Winthrop man, who complained to his doctor in the Augusta area about feeling increasingly tired. His doctor ran a battery of tests, including a stress test on a treadmill, but found nothing wrong.

Whitehouse failed to improve.

So in June, after hearing of the new test, he called Maine hospitals. He discovered that CMMC had just purchased the General Electric-made device.

Doctors gave him a beta blocker to slow his heart, connected him to an IV and monitored his heart.

Then, like luggage in an airport, a conveyer belt drew his horizontal body into the machine.

It didn’t hurt a bit.

Essentially, the scanner is a vast improvement over the routine CT scan. Though the scanners have long been used to examine different organs of the body, it’s been difficult to render an image of the heart.

The problem is that it beats, blurring the standard scan. The new equipment does it in five seconds, in the time it takes the heart to beat only a few times. It also creates four times more images, from 16 to 64.

In Whitehouse, the scanner discovered a near-blockage in an artery that might have led to a heart attack if left untreated.

He learned the results a day later.

“I had been in denial,” he said. “I really didn’t think I had a heart problem.”

He was immediately scheduled for a balloon angioplasty. Doctors at CMMC inserted a tiny balloon into the artery and inflated it to open the artery and boost blood flow. His condition improved.

It’s the ideal situation, but one that is covered by few insurance plans, Harradon said.

That may be changing, though.

By early 2007, Harradon believes many more plans will cover the procedure’s $1,400 cost. After all, costs skyrocket in the wake of a heart attack.

Meanwhile, some people are paying for the procedure out of their own pockets. In one case, a man paid for the test for him and his wife, Harradon said.

“He just wanted peace of mind,” she said.