🧬 Brief Summary
A large international study revealed that the buildup of plaque inside the arteries, known as atherosclerosis, begins at early stages of youth. Researchers found that about 1 in every 13 young people under the age of 30 carries hidden plaque in their arteries without showing symptoms. It also became clear that the disease is more widespread than expected, and that it begins silently before symptoms of heart disease or strokes develop, which strengthens the need for early examinations using advanced imaging techniques such as ultrasound imaging for early detection and precise prevention.
🩺 Plaque Buildup in the Arteries: An Early and Dangerous Beginning
atherosclerosis is considered the main cause of many heart and vascular diseases, and it occurs as a result of the buildup of a fatty substance known as plaques inside the walls of the arteries, which obstructs blood flow and causes life-threatening health complications such as heart attacks and strokes.
What is surprising, however, is that this process is not merely a problem that occurs in old age, but may begin during youth, despite the absence of symptoms or clear signs of the disease, as revealed by the latest research from the international team within the REACT project, in which more than 16,000 people aged between 18 and 70 participated.
🧠 What Were the Most Important Findings from the First Phase of the REACT Project?
- The proportion of people found to have plaques in their arteries reached 57.1% of participants, despite no cardiac symptoms appearing.
- Among young people under the age of 30, it was found that 1 in 13 suffers from this plaque buildup.
- Prevalence increases with age, reaching about 90% among those aged 60 to 70.
- Plaques were found in several arteries, including the carotid arteries in the neck, the femoral arteries in the legs, in addition to the coronary arteries that supply the heart.
🌱 Early Detection: From Risk Estimation to Tracking the Actual Disease
The traditional risk-assessment model relies on factors such as blood pressure, cholesterol, and smoking, and only shows the likelihood of future disease, but it does not accurately reveal the presence of plaque buildup even before symptoms appear.
Instead, the REACT project aims to adopt a more accurate model based on vascular imaging to directly detect silent plaques, allowing early preventive measures based on the presence of the disease itself rather than on predictions alone.
🧪 The Importance of Ultrasound Imaging
- Researchers found that most people with plaques in the coronary arteries also had plaques in the carotid or femoral arteries.
- Imaging the carotid and femoral arteries with ultrasound is easier, faster, and non-invasive compared with the CT scans used for the coronary arteries.
- Portable ultrasound devices are expected to become a key tool for easy early detection in clinics, with the aim of detecting atherosclerosis in its early stages.
🧠 Gender Differences and Their Relationship to Age
It was found that men show plaque buildup at earlier ages compared with women, as prevalence among men begins to rise during the twenties and thirties, while women experience a sharp increase in plaque rates between 40 and 60 years of age, a stage that often coincides with the menopause period.
These findings highlight the importance of designing preventive strategies that take into account sex and age stage to achieve the best possible protection and address the differing nature of disease progression between men and women.
🩺 The Study’s Impact on Future Prevention and Treatment Methods
Current scientific results indicate the possibility of shifting heart disease prevention rules from risk prediction to early disease detection, opening the door to more precise and effective early preventive and therapeutic interventions.
The researchers suggest that early detection of atherosclerosis through imaging, especially using non-surgical methods, will enable doctors to:
- Customize treatment and prevention plans according to the presence of plaque buildup in each person.
- Start early intervention to prevent the development of various heart diseases.
- Reduce the health burden caused by heart attacks and strokes by stopping disease progression.
🧬 The Next Step: Large-Scale Clinical Trials
The second phase of the REACT project, scheduled from 2027 to 2032, will use this scientific evidence to assess whether early detection programs through imaging lead to measurably better health outcomes compared with traditional methods in prevention and treatment.
This part aims to conduct a randomized clinical trial on a large scale involving thousands of patients, to evaluate the effectiveness of using imaging in reducing the progression of atherosclerosis and the heart diseases resulting from it.
🌍 Expanding the Research Globally
To confirm the validity of these findings in different geographic and population settings, the REACT network is expanding to include studies in countries such as India, Singapore, Tanzania, and Mexico.
These efforts are expected to highlight possible differences in the development of atherosclerosis based on environmental and dietary factors, as well as different genetic backgrounds around the world.
🧠 Contributing to a Better Understanding of the Disease’s Early Development
The REACT project relies on data from the earlier PESA-CNIC-Santander study, which showed the presence of plaques in many middle-aged adults and the impact of lifestyle patterns on disease occurrence, but it expanded to include younger age groups to find out when and how the disease process begins.
The study opens opportunities to discover early prevention opportunities, and may achieve future goals that could include reducing the spread and worsening of heart and brain diseases related to the arteries.
🧬 Conclusion
The results of the REACT project highlight the importance of re-evaluating heart disease prevention strategies by focusing on early detection of atherosclerosis using direct imaging techniques, especially ultrasound. This new vision is considered a revolution in the medical field, enabling therapeutic and preventive intervention before symptoms develop and make the disease harder to control.
With recognition of differences in progression between the sexes and age-related changes, public health programs will be able to direct resources more precisely, contributing to the reduction of early deaths caused by heart and vascular diseases at both the local and global levels.
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