Soft plaque in arteries ruptures and causes heart attacks, while hard plaque stays stable. Modern imaging can now spot the difference between them and measure soft plaque burden, which determines whether you need medication or intervention.
Soft plaques, those squishy plaques, are the kinds that rupture, that lead you into the emergency department with your heart attack. Actually, it's like a dive into your coronary arteries. You can see the plaque. Mm-hmm. You can quantify exactly how much, and more importantly, what type of plaque is there. Hard plaque, we all have it. It's not great, but it's the right type of plaque. Soft plaques, those squishy plaques, are the kinds that rupture, that lead you into the emergency department with your heart attack. And so having— knowing how much soft plaque you have, that gives you the intervention that you need in order to treat it. Sometimes people get a scan and there's, there's none. Sometimes it's way worse than they think because you don't know until you check.
