Small amounts of Plaque increases risk of Heart Attack

Plaque in the coronary arteries can obstruct blood flow to the heart and cause chest pain. A complete blockage can sometimes trigger a heart attack. However, many people are diagnosed with smaller amounts of plaque in their arteries. A new study examined whether these smaller blockages are also associated with an increased risk of heart attack and death. “We were concerned that perhaps those non-obstructive plaques did have a risk for causing a heart attack down the road.” Dr. Thomas Maddox and co-authors examined angiograms of more than 37,000 U.S. veterans, over a three-year period. This procedure can detect obstructions in the coronary arteries. The researchers wanted to see whether patients with smaller blockages had heart attacks or died in the year following their angiogram. “All of these patients regardless of whether or not they had non-obstructive or obstructive coronary disease had a higher risk for heart attack and death over that following year compared to patients that didn’t have any coronary disease at all.” The study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.