Cholesterol's role in heart attacks probed

EAST LANSING, Mich., Aug 29, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A Michigan State University study has focused on the role cholesterol plays in causing heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular events in humans.

The work by cardiologist Dr. George Abela found cholesterol built up along an artery's wall and crystallized from a liquid to a solid state can expand and then burst, sending material into the bloodstream.

It is such a chain of events -- the expansion of the liquid cholesterol as it crystallizes into a solid -- that kickstarts the body's natural clotting process, which, unfortunately in such a case, works against the body, essentially shutting down the artery.

"As the cholesterol crystallizes, two things can happen," Abela said. "If it's a big pool of cholesterol, it will expand and just tear the cap off the deposit in the arterial wall. Or the crystals, which are sharp, needle-like structures, poke their way through the membrane covering the cholesterol deposit, like nails through wood. Once a rupture or erosion of the surface of the artery occurs, then the clotting system is activated to do its job."

The study is published in the September edition of Clinical Cardiology.