A new U.S. study found why a very small proportion of arterial plaques become deadly and lead to heart attack or stroke and why the vast majority others stay benign and apparently do no harm.
The study was the work of researchers at Columbia University Medical Center, and New York University Medical Center, both in New York, and is published in the recent issue of Cell Metabolism.
The researchers said that many people are wrong to believe that all arterial plaques inevitably result in heart attack or stroke and their study found out why so few of them are actually worth worrying about.
They also found an important protein that may be responsible for benign plaques turning into dangerous one.
While most atherosclerotic lesions are harmless, only about 2 percent of them will eventually cause an acute and often fatal blood clot that leads to heart attack, sudden death or stroke, said the researchers.
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What distinguishes a dangerous plaque from a benign one is the "billion dollar question" said Dr. Ira Tabas, who is Richard J. Stock Professor and Vice Chairman of Research, at the Department of Medicine at Columbia University and Professor of Medicine and Anatomy and Cell Biology.
