Salzburg study:

Microplastics even detectable in carotid arteries

Micro- and nanoplastics (MNP) can even be detected in the carotid arteries of atherosclerosis patients. This has now been discovered by researchers in Salzburg as part of a study.

This could lead to an increase in acute cardiovascular diseases, the researchers report in the medical journal "Cardio News". Microplastics are plastic particles with a diameter of less than five millimetres. Nanoplastics are particles between one and 1000 nanometres (0.001 millimetres, note) in size.

"We ingest microplastics every day: through inhalation, skin contact, via the mucous membranes of the eye surfaces or through the consumption of contaminated food. It is assumed that humans ingest around a quarter of a kilogram of microplastics in this way every year," wrote Salzburg cardiologist Friedrich Hoppichler (Hospital of the Brothers of Mercy) and health psychologist Julia Schätzer from the Special Institute for Preventive Cardiology And Nutrition (SIPCAN) in Salzburg.

Risk factor for cardiovascular disease
The particles enter many tissues via the bloodstream. Microplastics have also been discovered in heart muscle tissue. Animal models have shown that exposure to micro/nanoplastics (MNPs) appears to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the experts emphasized.

According to Hoppichler and Schätzer, the Italian internist Raffaele Marfella from the University of Naples and co-authors recently provided evidence of micro- and nanoplastics in the atherosclerosis plaques of patients with at least 70 percent narrowing of a carotid artery.

In 257 study participants between the ages of 18 and 75 who underwent surgery to remove the plaques, polyethylene was detected in 58 percent of the tissue samples. "In 31 of them (12.1 percent), PVC (polyvinyl chloride) was also detected," reported the Austrian experts.

Risk 4.5 times higher
The crux of the matter: an acute cardiovascular disease (non-fatal stroke or non-fatal heart attack or death) occurred in eight out of 107 patients (7.5 percent) in whom no MNPs were detected in the removed atherosclerosis plaques over an average observation period of 33.7 months. In contrast, 30 out of 150 (20 percent) in the group of patients with micro/nanoplasty detection in the carotid artery had such an acute event. Among them, the risk was 4.5 times higher.

No causal evidence yet available
This is not yet causal proof of the connection between micro- and nanoplastics in plaques, as they occur in "vascular calcification". But this could be clarified in further studies. One hypothesis, according to Hoppichler and Julia Schätzer, is that MNPs apparently have pro-inflammatory properties.

Subliminal chronic inflammation, however, is a recognized risk factor for atherosclerosis and for plaques that form in the arteries, which can lead to thrombus formation and thus to heart attacks, strokes, etc. if they suddenly break open.