A new study has revealed that exposure to air pollution over a long period results in higher risk of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, which may cause heart attacks and strokes, according to Medical Xpress.
A team of researchers led by Sara Adar, John Searle Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, and Joel Kaufman, Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and Medicine, University of Washington, has shown how air pollution is linked to speeding up of atherosclerosis.
In the process, concentrations of fine particulate air pollution speeds up the process of thickening the inner layers of two common carotid arteries, which supplies blood to the head, neck and brain. Controlling the exposure to air pollution has shown a significant reduction in the blood vessel thickness.
"Our findings help us to understand how it is that exposures to air pollution may cause the increases in heart attacks and strokes observed by other studies," Adar said.
For the study, researchers followed over 5,000 adults aged between 45 to 84 years from six different U.S. metropolitan areas, the report said. All participants had no history of known heart diseases. Researchers noted the amount of exposure to each person's house with two ultrasound measurements of the blood vessels.
After analyzing the data, researchers found on an average that the carotid vessel thickened by 14 µm each year. The higher the exposure to the fine particulate air pollution, the greater was the thickening of the blood vessels.
Adar noted that people living in a higher polluted part of the town were at a 2 percent higher risk than those living in the less polluted part of the same metropolitan area.
"If confirmed by future analyses of the full 10 years of follow-up in this cohort, these findings will help to explain associations between long-term PM2.5 concentrations and clinical cardiovascular events," the authors wrote.
The findings of the study are published in this week's edition of PLOS Medicine.
