Atherosclerosis, believed to be an irreversible progressive artery-clogging disease, can be reversed if risk factors are controlled early enough, according to a new study.
The study also found that the impact of high cholesterol and high blood pressure on artery clogging is greater in younger people, according to a report published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Doctors and patients need to realize that progression of subclinical atherosclerosis – arterial plaque that has not yet caused a major cardiovascular event like a heart attack or stroke – can be stopped if risk factors are managed aggressively from an early age, the researchers said.
The study tracked more than 4,000 middle-aged bank employees in Madrid without a history of heart disease who volunteered to undergo noninvasive 3-dimensional ultrasound imaging studies of their major arteries every three years.
Six years after the study began, approximately one in three participants who had been free of subclinical atherosclerosis had developed it, most often, in the femoral artery in the thigh.
Overall during those six years, among the 3,471 volunteers who either started out with subclinical atherosclerosis or developed it along the way, the condition progressed in 32.7%.
Poor control of cholesterol levels and blood pressure were linked with greater progression of atherosclerosis. Those links were strongest in younger study participants, the researchers found.
But among the 1,529 participants with subclinical atherosclerosis at the start, 123, or 8% – all with low amounts of plaque – saw the condition regress. Among the predictors of regression were younger age and lower levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol, the researchers reported.
“Our results call for an urgent shift in the current approach to the disease,” the researchers wrote.
“Given the greater likelihood of achieving atherosclerotic plaque regression at younger ages… efforts in the prevention of cardiovascular disease must begin earlier in life.”
