{"id":608227,"date":"2026-08-29T11:40:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T11:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/608227\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T11:40:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T11:40:36","slug":"react-use-of-imaging-to-detect-silent-atherosclerosis-in-early-adulthood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/608227\/","title":{"rendered":"REACT: Use of Imaging to Detect Silent Atherosclerosis in Early Adulthood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Silent atherosclerosis is detectable using imaging in early adulthood, with age- and sex-associated increases in prevalence across arterial territories and significant increases in plaque volume, based on results from the REACT trial presented at ESC Congress 2026<\/a> and simultaneously published in NEJM<\/a>. The findings suggest the use of imaging from early adulthood \u201cmay provide an opportunity to improve primary prevention strategies and reduce the substantial burden of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease,\u201d researchers said.<\/p>\n

REACT enrolled nearly 17,000 adults without known atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (mean age 45; 51% women) from Denmark and Spain and placed them in five prespecified age strata that included a balanced number of men and women. Three-dimensional vascular ultrasonography of the carotid and femoral arteries, as well as coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA), were used to asses silent atherosclerosis at baseline. <\/p>\n

Overall findings showed silent atherosclerosis was present in 57% of all the participants. Broken down by age, atherosclerosis was present in nearly 9% of men and 7% of women in the youngest age stratum (18 to 29 years), with prevalence increasing with age. Approximately 9 out of 10 individuals between the ages of 60 and 70 had atherosclerosis, researchers said.<\/p>\n

In other findings, study investigators noted that atherosclerosis prevalence increased earlier in men, whereas women showed a later and particularly steep midlife increase, around the typical age for menopause. Plaque volume also increased exponentially with age, while isolated coronary-artery atherosclerosis was uncommon across all ages. Among younger participants, atherosclerosis was most often peripheral and confined to a single vascular territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese data from multiple locations support the concept of silent atherosclerosis as a systemic, progressive disease process,\u201d said Henning Bundgaard, MSc, PhD, from Rigshospitalet – Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark. \u201cIdentifying and treating silent atherosclerosis as early as possible could help reduce the global burden of [cardiovascular disease]. Our findings support further prospective studies to investigate whether imaging-guided treatment of those with early evidence of disease \u2013 detected using a handheld ultrasound scanner \u2013 can improve current standards. If successful, this could support a precision medicine approach to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visit ACC\u2019s ESC Congress 2026 coverage page<\/a> to explore the latest science and key takeaways shaping cardiovascular care.<\/p>\n


\n Keywords:
\n ESC Congress, ESC26, Atherosclerosis, Cardiovascular Diseases, Prevalence \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Silent atherosclerosis is detectable using imaging in early adulthood, with age- and sex-associated increases in prevalence across arterial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":["post-608227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}