Artery risk looms in seemingly healthy patients

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - People diagnosed with clogged arteries have a one-in-seven chance of dying, having a heart attack or stroke, or of being admitted to the hospital within a year, even if they feel fine, researchers reported on Tuesday.

While clogged arteries are well known to cause heart attacks or strokes, the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first to put such a precise number on the risk and to show how soon a life-threatening event may come.

Feeling well does not mean a patient is protected.

"Don't be deceived," Dr. Deepak Bhatt, a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist and one of the study's authors, said in a telephone interview.

"There is a pretty high chance they will come back with a problem with their vascular system," Bhatt said. "They might feel they have been cured, but the underlying buildup of plaque is still ongoing."

The study, sponsored by drugmakers Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis, looked at one-year follow-up data from a registry of 68,236 international patients with either established disease or those who had at least three risk factors for developing clogged arteries, such as obesity, high blood pressure or diabetes.

It found that people with established disease overall have about a one-in-seven chance of death, heart attack or stroke or being hospitalized because of cardiovascular disease within one year.

These patients are two to three times more likely to die or be hospitalized than people who have multiple risk factors but do not yet have badly damaged arteries.

Patients who have clogged arteries in the legs, a condition known as peripheral artery disease, have a one-in-five chance of dying, having a heart attack or stroke or being hospitalized.

That risk doubles for patients who have clogged arteries in more than one location of the body, such as the heart, brain or legs.

The participants were enrolled from 5,587 physician practices in 44 countries in 2003 and 2004.

Based on its findings, the authors project that over the next 12 months, as many as 1.75 million deaths, heart attacks, strokes or related hospitalizations could occur in the United States alone.

"That one in seven (risk) may seem kind of low, but from a public health standpoint, that is pretty high to see in a stable patient," Bhatt said.