An adaptation to MRI noninvasively enables radiologists to distinguish between a type of plaque in the coronary arteries that is likely to cause a heart attack and plaque that isn't. As many as 1.5 million Americans will have a heart attack this year, and about one-third of them will die. Dr. Fayad and his team developed a modification of MRI that can clearly look inside the coronary arteries. This could change the face of cardiac imaging.
Heart disease is the leading cause of mortality in the United States.
As many as 1.5 million Americans will have a new or recurrent heart attack this year, and about a third of them will die, according to the American Heart Association. The study specifically looked at 5 arteries in each of the latter group that had blockage of 40 percent or more. Preliminary findings showed that plaque build-up in the heart patients was 2 to 10 times thicker than in the healthy subjects, and that the plaque bulged in some places, indicating the more dangerous, vulnerable plaque. The study showed that it is possible to visualize the shape of the plaque inside the arteries, and that even though blood flow may be adequate in arteries with plaque buildup, having vulnerable plaques puts patients at risk for heart attack, and should be treated. In the last decade, researchers have found that some plaques are more vulnerable to breaking off from the walls of the artery and prompting a blood clot, which travels to the heart and can cause heart attack.