Early Signs of Coronary Artery Disease Could Mean Increased Risk of Heart Attack, Early Death
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HEMARAT/iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Researchers say that even the earliest signs of coronary artery disease could represent significantly increased risk of heart attack and early death.
According to the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, even patients with nonobstructive coronary artery disease — where plaque buildup is present, but not sufficient to block blood flow or cause symptoms — could carry a greater risk of heart attack. Researchers looked at more than 37,000 patients — 8,384 with nonobstructive coronary artery disease and 20,899 with no apparent coronary artery disease.
Within one year, 845 of the patients had died and 385 were hospitalized with heart attacks. Researchers found that the rate of heart attack increased based on the number of vessels impacted by nonobstructive coronary artery disease. Even one vessel with some plaque buildup made patients more than twice as likely to suffer a heart attack than those with no signs of coronary artery disease.
Similar increases were found in risk of mortality.
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