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To find out where you can get this test, or to find a center near you call: 1-800-USC-CARE.Jinah Kim reporting
It's a problem that affects many women: They have chest pains on and off - even heart attacks. But when they go to the doctor, they're told there is no sign of heart disease.
It all began when Toni Smith was 10-years-old.
Toni Smith: "I started having this amazing chest pain - that a 10 year old shouldn't have."
The pain wouldn't go away. Then, at just 19 years old, smith had a heart attack. But test after test, doctor after doctor, told the aspiring photographer - her heart was just fine and she should ignore the pain.
Toni Smith: "I would be walking down the hall at work and I would literally drop to my knees in pain. By the time I was 22, I was unable to work. The chest pain was unrelenting."
For 18 years, Smith had no idea what was causing the pain. Then, she found Dr. Gerald Pohost at USC university hospital in Los Angeles.
Dr. Gerald Pohost, USC University Hospital: "Making the diagnosis is really a lot of the battle."
Pohost put Smith through an advanced three dimension MRI machine called a 3-t, which showed blockages in the tiniest arteries leading to her heart.
Dr. Gerald Pohost, USC University Hospital: "We call that micro vascular disease - small vessel disease."
It mainly affects women. And no traditional test has been able to detect it - until Pohost and a few others started using the 3-t MRI to scan hearts last year.
The National Institutes of Health estimates that as many as 3 million women in the U.S. suffer from hidden heart disease.
Smith considers herself one of the lucky ones. And although there is no cure yet for micro vascular disease - she's on experimental drugs.
Toni Smith: "That new treatment offers me new hope to go back to work, to go back to school, to possibly some day have children. That was never an option for me. It gives me my life back."
Only about six centers nationwide are currently using the 3- t M- R- I machines to diagnose micro vascular disease.
The main indicator of the disease is recurring, radiating pain in the middle or side of the chest.
