Neck Artery Wall Thickness and Plaque Area – a new test to diagnose early heart diseases

Treadmill, stress echocardiography, Thallium and Angiography do not detect early blockages. Treadmill can miss blockages up to 70%; stress echocardiography up to 60%, angiography upto 40%.

Most heart attacks occur because of a plaque rupture in patients with blockages of less than 50%. If the blockage is more than 70% the patient usually presents with heart pain and not massive heart attack.

The only way to detect heart blockages before they cause symptoms or are detected in conventional tests is to measure the wall thickness of the neck artery or the leg artery. Normally, the wall thickness is less than 0.5mm. If the wall thickness is more than 0.75mm, it is suggestive of underlying heart blockages and if it is more than 1mm, it is suggestive of blockages in all three arteries of the heart.

Any thickness of more than 1mm is called as a plaque and a plaque area calculated by high resolution ultrasound is a new marker for heart blockages, progression as well as regression.

If the artery wall is thick in both the neck artery and the leg artery, it is very likely that the patient will also have blockages in the arteries of the heart.

All high risk individuals, therefore, should have their neck and leg artery wall thickness checkup done. Only 2% of patients with blockages in all three arteries of the heart have a neck artery wall thickness of less than 1mm and 94% of patients with a neck artery wall thickness of more than 1.15mm will have multiple blockages in the heart.