An angiogram showed he had blockages in some coronary arteries, caused by fatty plaque over the years, doctors said.

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The good news is that there is also a CT scan available to detect fatty deposits that constitute soft plaque, called a Coronary CT Angiography (CTA).

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In 1979 pathologist Ross Gerrity showed that in pigs one of the first steps in the formation of artery plaque occurs when macrophages travel into the artery and gobble up cholesterol inside, forming fatty deposits.

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