Some doctors are questioning a recent White House report on President Donald Trump’s recent medical examination, saying it lacks crucial information around the results of his cardiovascular testing.
“If I was creating a report to send to another physician, I would have mentioned a little bit more about the carotid ultrasound,” Dr. William Shutze, a Texas vascular surgeon, told the Wall Street Journal. “What amount of plaque there is going to be—because almost all of us are going to have some buildup there.”
Trump spent three hours at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Tuesday to undergo a series of tests for his annual medical examination. He was quick to boast about the results and how he scored a “perfect 30 out of 30, considered ‘extreme intelligence’” on a cognitive test.
The president’s physician, Navy Capt. Sean Barabella, wrote in the Friday report that Trump “remains in excellent health, demonstrating strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological and overall physical function.”
Among the tests was an AI-enhanced electrocardiogram analysis that Barbabella said estimated the 79-year-old president’s cardiac age as 65.
The physician’s report also cited results from a coronary CT angiography, usually performed to check for narrowed or blocked arteries in the heart; an echocardiogram, which uses sound waves to create an image of the heart; and an ultrasound of the carotid arteries that Barbabella said showed normal results.
The White House did not, however, include crucial information typically produced by such tests to support Barbabella’s reporting that Trump’s cardiac function is normal, according to doctors cited by the Journal.
Physicians said that are other areas of the report which lack sufficient specificity to fully assess Trump’s cardiac health, such as a calcium score, a description of any plaque in the arteries, and a CAD-RADS score to assess narrowing in the arteries.
Instead, the report states there is “no arterial obstruction or structural abnormalities” in the heart of major blood vessels, which doctors said could simply mean there isn’t a blockage.
Another missing detail from this report – though provided in Trump’s 2018 health report – is the ejection fraction measure taken from the echocardiogram; the percentage of blood pumped with each heart contraction.
“President Trump has publicly released more detailed information about his health than any other president in history—showing he is in excellent health,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a written statement.
Cheung criticized doctors speculating about a report for a patient not under their care. There is no legal requirement for presidents to share any health data.
The White House said any absence of certain results should be seen as confirmation that no clinically meaningful abnormalities were identified.
Presidential health has been increasingly analyzed as Americans have selected aging leaders. Trump is the second-oldest person to occupy the Oval Office, turning 80 later this month. His predecessor, Joe Biden, was 82 when he left the presidency.
