Fat surrounding the coronary arteries are a possible marker of the risk of heart attack. A diagnostic technique would be able to identify patients most at risk of heart attack by looking at the fat and arteries’ inflammation. This is a research from the University of Oxford (United Kingdom), «still in the experimental phases, which investigated the potential of a non-invasive examination to assess the risk of heart attack», explains Dr. Giulio Stefanini, University researcher in Cardiology at Humanitas University . «The information obtainable from this examination could, one day, be integrated with those of the new biomarkers under study in Humanitas laboratories».
The main cause of heart attacks is atherosclerosis, i.e. the formation of deposits on the walls of the arteries which restrict their lumen. The diagnostic tests available today, however, are not able to understand when these plaques are ready to “stabilize”: «With the contrastless coronary CT scan we have an evaluation of the calcifications inside the vessels while we get contrast through the coronary profile. In any case, this examination does not tell us which plaques are more inflamed and at greater risk of rupture».
The objective of the research is to identify patients at risk, by looking at the arteries affected by an initial process of atherosclerosis. Researchers worked on this with the study published in Science Translational Medicine. The team is focused on the “communication” between the coronary arteries and the fat that surrounds them: «The researchers have proposed to evaluate, through a CT, the fat around the arteries whose characteristics would be associated with inflammation and consequently, the risk of rupture», explains Dr. Stefanini.
Other cardio-vascular risk markers are also being studied
Naturally, further studies are necessary before we can think of using this examination in clinical practice, but the path has nevertheless been opened. «Several researchers have tried to develop diagnostic imaging of this kind. If the test proves to be applicable, its information could be combined with those derived from the use of new biomarkers that predict coronary risk».
Humanitas researchers led by Professor Gianluigi Condorelli, director of the Cardiovascular Department at Humanitas, are evaluating the effectiveness of some molecules to identify patients most likely to be affected by an adverse coronary event, heart attacks, and cerebral strokes: «They are mainly circulating microRNAs in the blood, cellular elements recently discovered and associated with the onset of cardio-vascular disease», concludes the specialist.
