John OsborneChief Medical Officer, ClearCardio LLC · Preventive cardiologist and Chief Medical Officer at ClearCardio

What Stage Is Your Heart Disease In Right Now?

12 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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0:42

In this brief video segment, the speaker explains a novel four‑stage system for classifying cardiovascular disease, likening it to oncology staging. The system categorises arterial plaque into four levels: Stage 0 (no plaque), Stage 1 (mild plaque), Stage 2 (moderate plaque), and Stage 3 (relatively severe plaque). The speaker distinguishes between soft plaque, which is dangerous because it can rupture and cause heart attacks or strokes, and calcified plaque. He notes that their clinic is among the few worldwide capable of formally staging cardiovascular disease, and references a specific patient who was diagnosed at Stage 3.

Chapters

You do have a level of disease, cardiovascular disease, i.e., plaque, soft plaque, as well as calcified plaque building up in your arterial wall. We were able to diagnose you, and we diagnosed you with what stage? Do you recall what stage that was? I think it was stage 3. There's— we are one of the only ones in the world that can actually stage cardiovascular disease now, like oncology and cancer. We can actually stage disease of cardiovascular disease. There's 4 stages. There's 0 being you have 0 plaque, i.e., no calcified plaque and no soft plaque. That's dangerous plaque. That ruptures and causes heart attacks and strokes. And then there's 1, 2, and 3, 1 being mild, 2 being moderate, and then 3 being relatively severe.