New potential atherosclerosis risk marker discovered
April 11, 2011 in Medical research
How your carotid artery moves can reveal your risk of a future heart attack, and it is now possible to study this vessel aspect in more detail thanks to a new technique which could eventually be used to identify patients with suspected coronary artery disease, reveals a thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries is associated with a risk of future heart disease, and it is therefore important to find risk markers for atherosclerotic disease. "When the heart beats, the body's blood vessels increase in diameter, and there is also movement alongside the blood vessels, known as longitudinal displacement, or tLod," explains researcher Sara Svedlund from the Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine at the Sahlgrenska Academy. "It was not previously possible to tell whether this movement had any impact on health, as there was a lack of adequate measurement techniques."
In her thesis, Svedlund investigated whether ultrasound technique could be used to study tLoD in the blood vessels in the neck. This would provide a simple and painless method of identifying patients at increased risk of coronary artery disease.
She used an advanced imaging analysis technique to study movement in the carotid artery using standard clinical ultrasound images. The method was tested on around 500 people, both patients with suspected coronary artery disease and healthy volunteers. It has also been transferred to experimental animal models for more in-depth studies in future.
Patients with reduced longitudinal displacement along the carotid artery have more extensive atherosclerosis in that artery, impaired heart function and a greater tendency to suffer from a shortage of oxygen in the heart. In a follow-up study, Svedlund has also been able to show that this new risk marker can predict the risk of future cardiovascular events.
"Today's methods look only at the thickness of the artery walls when identifying atherosclerosis. Our technique shows that longitudinal displacement in the carotid artery reflects both the degree of atherosclerosis in the artery and heart function. This new method may therefore give us additional information and enable us to predict which patients run an increased risk of future heart disease. We will follow up these interesting findings in further studies to establish the technique which potentially can be used in clinical routine in the future."
Atherosclerosis is the accumulation of cholesterol in the arteries to form hard plaques, which can cause diseases such as angina, heart attacks and strokes. Atherosclerosis-related diseases cause 40-50% of all deaths in Sweden each year.
Provided by
University of Gothenburg
-
Carotid artery ultrasound is an effective alternative to more invasive coronary angiography
Jun 14, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
PET imaging detects early, 'silent heart' stage of disease in asymptomatic diabetic patients
Jun 16, 2008 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Framingham risk assessment doesn't accurately predict coronary artery disease, study suggests
Apr 21, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Simple ultrasound test improves diagnosis of heart disease
Apr 06, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Urine screening test may one day predict coronary artery disease
Apr 30, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Motion perception revisited: High Phi effect challenges established motion perception assumptions
Apr 23, 2013 |
3 / 5 (2) |
2
-
Anything you can do I can do better: Neuromolecular foundations of the superiority illusion (Update)
Apr 02, 2013 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
5
-
The visual system as economist: Neural resource allocation in visual adaptation
Mar 30, 2013 |
5 / 5 (2) |
9
-
Separate lives: Neuronal and organismal lifespans decoupled
Mar 27, 2013 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
0
-
Sizing things up: The evolutionary neurobiology of scale invariance
Feb 28, 2013 |
4.8 / 5 (10) |
14
-
How can there be a term called "intestinal metaplasia" of stomach
13 hours ago
-
Pressure-volume curve: Elastic Recoil Pressure don't make sense
May 18, 2013
-
If you became brain-dead, would you want them to pull the plug?
May 17, 2013
-
MRI bill question
May 15, 2013
-
Ratio of Hydrogen of Oxygen in Dessicated Animal Protein
May 13, 2013
-
Alcohol and acetaminophen
May 13, 2013
- More from Physics Forums - Medical Sciences
More news stories
H. pylori, smoking trends, and gastric cancer in US men
Trends in Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) and smoking explain a significant proportion of the decline of intestinal-type noncardia gastric adenocarcinoma (NCGA) incidence in US men between 1978 and 2008, and are estimated ...
Medical research
3 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Common food supplement fights degenerative brain disorders
Widely available in pharmacies and health stores, phosphatidylserine is a natural food supplement produced from beef, oysters, and soy. Proven to improve cognition and slow memory loss, it's a popular treatment for older ...
Medical research
8 hours ago |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
|
Finding a family for a pair of orphan receptors in the brain
Researchers at Emory University have identified a protein that stimulates a pair of "orphan receptors" found in the brain, solving a long-standing biological puzzle and possibly leading to future treatments for neurological ...
Medical research
8 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
|
Insight into the dazzling impact of insulin in cells
Australian scientists have charted the path of insulin action in cells in precise detail like never before. This provides a comprehensive blueprint for understanding what goes wrong in diabetes.
Medical research
9 hours ago |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
0
|
Do men's and women's hearts burn fuel differently?
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine will study gender differences in how the heart uses and stores fat—its main energy source—and how changes in fat metabolism play ...
Medical research
11 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
If you can remember it, you can remember it wrong
(Medical Xpress)—Native peoples in regions where cameras are uncommon sometimes react with caution when their picture is taken. The fear that something must have been stolen from them to create the photo ...
New sleeping pill poised to hit US markets
An experimental sleeping pill from US drug company Merck is effective at helping people fall and stay asleep, according to reviewers at the US Food and Drug Administration, which could soon approve the new drug.
Reducing caloric intake delays nerve cell loss
Activating an enzyme known to play a role in the anti-aging benefits of calorie restriction delays the loss of brain cells and preserves cognitive function in mice, according to a study published in the May ...
B vitamins could delay dementia
(Medical Xpress)—Despite spending billions of dollars on research and development, drug companies have been unable to come up with effective treatments for dementia and Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Now, A. ...
Antidepressant reduces stress-induced heart condition
A drug commonly used to treat depression and anxiety may improve a stress-related heart condition in people with stable coronary heart disease, according to researchers at Duke Medicine.
Changing cancer's environment to halt its spread
By studying the roles two proteins, thrombospondin-1 and prosaposin, play in discouraging cancer metastasis, a trans-Atlantic research team has identified a five-amino acid fragment of prosaposin that significantly reduces ...
Apr 16, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
Life style changes
Regular health check ups
Treatment: include minimally invasive angioplasty procedures that may include stents to physically expand narrowed arteries and major invasive surgery, such as bypass surgery, to create additional blood supply connections that go around the more severely narrowed areas.
To know more visit: heart-consult.com/articles/what-atherosclerosis