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Coronary Artery Disease
By M. A. Fulmar

Of all the serious and even life-threatening side effects of high blood pressure, coronary artery disease is by far the most common. Coronary artery disease kills more people in the United States than any other illness.

We know that the heart is the organ responsible for pumping blood to the rest of the body to provide oxygen and nutrients vital for sustaining life. However, even though the heart pumps blood 24 hours every day, the blood that flows through its four chambers does not provide the heart muscle itself with those vital nutrients. That's where the coronary arteries come into play.

The coronary arteries are the vessels that supply the heart muscle with blood, oxygen and nutrients. These arteries are filled with blood from the left ventricle. The cardiac veins empty that blood right back into the heart for reprocessing with the rest of the blood from the body. As long as these arteries stay clean and do not get clogged, the heart muscle usually stays pretty healthy. However, when these vessels begin to narrow and get blocked, the heart muscle gets damaged. This damage can occur suddenly, which usually results in a heart attack. But the damage can occur slowly over a long period of time, which can lead to congestive heart failure.

Coronary artery disease usually is caused by a combination of high blood pressure and atherosclerosis, also known as hardening of the arteries. Atherosclerosis typically begins when fatty streaks form in the inner linings of the elastic arteries throughout the body. Although these fatty streaks can be found in any artery in the body, they are most commonly found in the aorta (the main artery leading out from the heart), the coronary arteries (the arteries that feed the heart muscle), and the cerebral arteries (the arteries that supply blood to the brain).

Autopsies show that fatty streaks can begin in the aorta as early in life as infancy. These buildups are frequently found in the smaller coronary arteries by the time children become teenagers. The fatty streaks may develop into atheromas, small raised plaques of mushy cholesterol, fat and foam cells on the inner walls of the arteries. The plaques start out as small elevations. Over time they enlarge as more cholesterol and other fatty material is deposited. At first, these atheromas are sparsely distributed throughout the arteries, but, as the disease progresses, they become more and more numerous. Sometimes, they even cover the entire inner surface of some of the affected arteries.

As the plaques grow, they start to come together and cause a narrowing of the lumen of the vessel, which seriously constricts the flow of blood within the arteries. They also begin to push into the middle layer of the arteries. By this time, the atheromas contain muscle tissue as well as cholesterol, lipids and other fatty material. Scar tissue eventually begins to grow under and on top of the fatty plaque. This scar tissue may become hardened by deposits of calcium. This process is why scientists refer to the disease as hardening of the arteries. At this point, the arteries have reached an advanced state of disease.

Author Details:
M. A. Fulmar writes about medical matters for a number of sites including Simply Top Articles and Information Junkie.

Source: The A to Z of Blood Pressure

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