Home » Light and ultrasound to discover invisible plaques on the arteries and prevent heart attack

Light and ultrasound to discover invisible plaques on the arteries and prevent heart attack

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PAIN and other symptoms that suggest a heart attack. The rush to the hospital, to get to treatment as soon as possible, always remembering that “time is the heart” and that the sooner the situation is dealt with, the greater the chances of limiting the damage caused by ischemia. And then…. Then, unfortunately, in some cases, despite the treatments that must always be followed to prevent new injuries, a new ischemic episode can occur. Now, to limit this risk, comes a new technique studied in a Swedish research coordinated by David Erlinge, of the University of Lund, published in The Lancet.

Artificial intelligence will tell who is really at risk of heart attack

The strategy focuses on those atherosclerotic lesions that are not identified by normal angiography and, precisely because they are rich in fat cells that make them particularly friable, they could fragment, creating new clots capable of obstructing the vessels again and inducing ischemia. The method is based on the combined action of two techniques, the Nirs (Near-Infrared Spectroscopy), which exploits the “detective” action of infrared rays and the Ivua, based instead on the ultrasound analysis made from inside the vessel. In practice, while a normal angiography with contrast medium reveals only what happens on the innermost part of the blood vessels, these two associated techniques also allow to evaluate the entire arterial structure and therefore to discover if there are also potentially lesions in the vessel wall. at risk because they are rich in fats. These become “colored” with a particular chromatic tone of yellow, which therefore makes them visible. The test to detect these changes, according to the study, is invasive. The “detector” associated with a common angiography is traced back to the heart with a special tube, in order to then obtain the “cross-section” of the most vulnerable lesions and at risk of rupture.

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To the digital “twin” study of the heart, to find out how to prevent heart attacks and evaluate the effectiveness of treatments

Research published on The Lancet examined nearly 900 people who had suffered a heart attack and treated with classic angioplasty followed by stent placement (mesh that keeps the artery enlarged) recruited in 16 centers in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. These subjects were then followed up over time and in 14.4% of cases, in the four years following the first heart attack, they experienced new circulatory difficulties. In eight out of a hundred patients, the cause of the ischemias that appeared was related to a plaque that was not visualized, and therefore not treated. Indeed, according to the data, in each person there would be on average four untreated plaques. Recognizing them would instead be fundamental, in terms of preventing new episodes. The goal of the double test with light and ultrasound would be precisely this: to identify plaques rich in fat and therefore at risk, which still escape conventional analyzes. Unfortunately, at the moment, there is no possibility of specifically treating the lesions that have been identified but pilot studies have already been carried out with this aim. While awaiting confirmation on the strategies for approaching injuries on significant numbers, in the meantime, research continues.

Heart attack, the techniques of the future to reveal the secrets of coronary arteries

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