apparently doctors have a pretty good idea of what causes heart attacks the following info is from a 2012ish article about calcium in the arteries
================================ More important, the mechanism of cardiac events (ie, myocardial infarction, sudden cardiac death) is not detectible with the stress test or any measure of coronary flow reserve. Multiple angiographic and epidemiologic studies have shown that the mechanism of myocardial infarction and/or sudden cardiac death in asymptomatic patients is plaque rupture with superimposed thrombosis. In most cases, the plaque burden is not flow limiting; therefore, the patient does not have a positive stress-test result or even a significantly abnormal coronary angiogram. These facts have renewed our interest in imaging techniques that can be used to detect a coronary atherosclerotic plaque at a point in its natural history when flow-limiting obstructive disease does not exist. Coronary calcification can begin in patients as young as 10-20 years. The calcification itself is calcium phosphate (hydroxyapatite), which is similar to that in bone. Such calcium deposition was believed to be the result of a degenerative process, but evidence now suggests an active process, perhaps a response to injury, that is regulated in the fashion similar to bone mineralization. At this point, the mechanism of calcium deposition in areas of atherosclerotic plaque is not completely understood. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "massfire" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/massfire. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
