Yale researchers have found a silver lining in potentially deadly conditions: People with aortic aneurysms generally do not have hardening of the arteries. People with an aortic aneurysm have a wider major artery leading from their heart that could rupture or split into layers, resulting in damage or death. People with atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, have a buildup of plaque on artery walls that also can be deadly. Yale School of Medicine researcher John Elefteriades said he was surprised to find in a study of 64 patients that “the arteries of the patients with ascending aortic aneurysm looked like a baby’s or a young child’s.” “This is a silver lining in the cloud of aneurysm disease,” Elefteriades said of the study published in the journal Chest. Elefteriades said it is possible genetic mutations that play a role in causing aortic aneurysms may protect people from hardening of the arteries, the most common cause of death in the Western World. © Copyright 2005 by United Press International

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