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| Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) |
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Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is by far the leading cause of death in our society today. Hundreds of thousands of new heart attacks will occur this year alone in Europe.More individuals will die from heart disease than from any other cause. CAD is the leading cause of death worldwide.Most individuals with coronary artery disease show no evidence of disease for decades as the disease progresses before the first onset of symptoms, often a "sudden" heart attack, finally arises. A majority of these will occur in individuals who had no previous history of heart disease and actually never had any symptom before presenting with their first heart attack. It is also estimated that up to one third of patients presenting with their first heart attack will die nearly instantaneously.
 Otherwise stated, in up to one third of first heart attack patients, their first symptom will be their last, resulting in death. These disease demographics are applicable to all European countries, including Monaco. These statistics are further compounded by the hard fact that heart attack is the number one cause of death in males from the age of 35 years! A non-invasive and highly sensitive method to find those patients who are susceptible to suffering an imminent heart attack is of paramount importance.Fortunately, this technology is readily available, affordable, and has become the accepted method of choice for such diagnosis by the leading cardiologists around the globe. This is known as 64-Slice CT scanning of the heart and coronary arteries.
Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is primarily caused by atherosclerosis, a degenerative process the causes the inner lining wall of the coronary arteries (the blood vessels that supply blood the heart) to become thickened by plaques of fatty tissue, protein, inflammatory cells, and calcium,often irregular, and eventually may cause blockage of the artery. If this develops to a fairly advanced stage, the plaque may break apart or rupture, leading to the formation of a blood clot, reducing blood flow to the heart, resulting in a heart attack. CAD begins when cholesterol is deposited within the wall of the coronary artery. This most often begins early in life, even in childhood or teenage years, not necessarily in adulthood.
CAD plaques may be safely detected by a simple CT scan procedure know as a Coronary Artery Calcium Score, whereby previously undetected fatty plaques may be detected and measured, with any injection or risk to the patient.
RISK FACTORS FOR CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE
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