Persistent asthma linked to increased buildup of plaque in arteries leading to the brain
Adults with persistent asthma may be at increased risk of heart attack or stroke because of excess plaque buildup in the carotid arteries, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association. People in the study had more plaque buildup in the carotid arteries, large arteries on the left and right side of the neck that carry blood to the brain, compared to people without asthma.
Asthma is a respiratory condition that causes a person’s airways to become inflamed — often due to allergic reactions — making it difficult to breathe. Chronic inflammation over time is known to contribute to artery plaque buildup known as atherosclerosis and is associated with a higher risk of plaques rupturing, triggering a heart attack or stroke.
“Many physicians and patients don’t realize that asthmatic airway inflammation may affect the arteries, so for people with persistent asthma, addressing risk factors for cardiovascular disease may be really helpful,” said lead study author Matthew C. Tattersall, D.O., M.S., assistant professor in the department of medicine at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. “The presence and burden of carotid artery plaque is a strong predictor of future cardiovascular events.”
For this analysis, researchers used data from participants enrolled in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) study to examine the potential association between asthma and carotid artery plaque. MESA is a research study of nearly 7,000 adults that began in 2000 and is still following participants today in six locations across the United States: Baltimore; Chicago; New York; Los Angeles County, California; Forsyth County, North Carolina; and St. Paul, Minnesota. At the time of enrollment, all participants in MESA were free from cardiovascular disease.
The researchers reviewed health data for 5,029 adults, average age of 61, who had baseline risk factors for cardiovascular disease and for whom there was carotid ultrasound data. The participant group is diverse: 26% of adults self-identified as African American, 23% self-identified as Hispanic and 12% self-identified as Chinese. Additionally, more than half of the group (53%) was female.
The participants in this analysis’s cohort were categorized as having persistent asthma, intermittent asthma or not having asthma. The subgroup with persistent asthma, defined as using daily controller medications to control asthma symptoms, consisted of 109 participants; the subgroup with intermittent asthma, defined as a history of asthma, but not using daily medications to control asthma symptoms, consisted of 388 participants; and the remaining participants did not have asthma.
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