Risk Factors

Most people nowadays are familiar with the risk factors that cause coronary arteries to fur up and block. By far the most serious is smoking. No matter what the tobacco companies try and preach and publish, the link between coronary artery disease, heart attacks and smoking are irrefutable. Patients who undergo angioplasty and stenting or coronary bypass surgery and who go on smoking will experience a much poorer result than those who stop or who have never smoked. Other risk factors include diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a bad a family history. The incidence of coronary narrowings increases with advancing age and in women incidence increases after the menopause.

There will always be some patients who develop narrowed and blocked arteries even if we can’t identify any risk factors although there must be some and further research is going on into this.