# Coronary artery disease Condition · id `cardio:coronary-artery-disease` · Cardiovascular Atlas · release `f6f6f1b6f50379ed` (public) > General information from published sources, not medical advice, and not reviewed by clinicians. Check the cited source before relying on anything here. The atlas's own text and curation may be reused under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/): credit the atlas, and do not use it commercially. See the atlas About page. Text quoted from a source stays under that source's own terms, given as the source's reuse\_basis. The atlas's reuse terms do not cover it. The downloads list each quotation with its source in third\_party\_quotations. Also called: CAD; Coronary heart disease; Ischemic heart disease Browse, organ or system: Heart Browse, condition area: Coronary and vascular disease ## In plain language Coronary artery disease happens when fatty deposits, called plaque, build up in the arteries that feed the heart muscle and narrow them, so the heart may not get the blood it needs. Many people find out only when chest pain, a heart attack or a cardiac arrest occurs. It is the cause of most heart attacks. ## Technical summary NHLBI uses the name coronary heart disease and gives coronary artery disease and ischemic heart disease as other names for it. NHLBI reports 371,506 US deaths from it in 2022 and estimates that one in every twenty US adults aged 20 and over has it. MedlinePlus describes it as the leading form of heart disease in the United States. This page is the hub for the atlas records on LDL-lowering medicines, stents and anti-inflammatory treatment. ## Claims, with the population each applies to ## Context: Adults, general patient-education statements on NHLBI and MedlinePlus pages about coronary disease, heart attack and cholesterol Recipient: Adult; Population: Adults in general. The pages are written for the public and give no study population, age range or risk group for these statements.; Care setting: General health information for the public; no care setting is stated; Geography: United States (pages of US government agencies; some figures on them are US statistics); Life stage: Adults. The NHLBI coronary page gives a prevalence for adults aged 20 and older.; Follow-up: Not applicable (descriptive statement) ### According to NHLBI, coronary artery disease is behind most heart attacks. MedlinePlus describes a heart attack as blood flow to the heart suddenly becoming blocked. - Category: Description - Evidence stage: Evidence stage unknown - Certainty: Certainty not assessed - Applies to: Recipient: Adult; Population: Adults in general. The pages are written for the public and give no study population, age range or risk group for these statements.; Care setting: General health information for the public; no care setting is stated; Geography: United States (pages of US government agencies; some figures on them are US statistics); Life stage: Adults. The NHLBI coronary page gives a prevalence for adults aged 20 and older.; Follow-up: Not applicable (descriptive statement) - Limitations: Patient-education pages from two US government sources. They give no study, no size of risk and no population, and they do not say how often coronary artery disease leads to a heart attack beyond the word most. - Last checked: 2026-10-14 - Sources: 1. Supports: Heart Attack: What Is a Heart Attack? (NHLBI) (Webpage, edition Page fetched 2026-10-14. The page states it was last updated on March 24, 2022.) Locator: Page body, overview. Retrieved 2026-10-14T18:21:38Z. Source state: Current. Snapshot hash: fecca0b485d427773d2af873968735d814e08bc1ca072e0649444dc29cb5818a. How it applies: NHLBI overview of a heart attack, last updated March 24, 2022 according to the page. 2. Background: Heart Attack (MedlinePlus health topic) (Webpage, edition Page fetched 2026-10-14.) Locator: Summary, What is a heart attack?: "It happens when blood flow to the heart suddenly becomes blocked.". Retrieved 2026-10-14T18:21:44Z. Source state: Current. Snapshot hash: 0071942340d0f832dddcbd79cd237b2bae7908a26cc9ff2a3a6b8c7a0107819e. How it applies: MedlinePlus wording for what a heart attack is. ## Connected pages - Can cause a heart attack: Heart attack (myocardial infarction) (`cardio:myocardial-infarction`) [a claim, not a settled fact; see claim `cardio:claim-cad-can-cause-heart-attack` and its context] - Files under this front: Procedures and surgery (`cardio:front-procedures-and-surgery`) - Related to: MedlinePlus (`core:medlineplus`) - Related to: Lipoprotein(a) (`cardio:lipoprotein-a`) - Evaluated for this: Alirocumab (`cardio:alirocumab`) [a claim, not a settled fact; see claim `cardio:claim-odyssey-alirocumab-after-acs` and its context] - Evaluated for this: Colchicine (`cardio:colchicine`) [a claim, not a settled fact; see claim `cardio:claim-lodoco2-low-dose-colchicine` and its context] - Evaluated for this: Evolocumab (`cardio:evolocumab`) [a claim, not a settled fact; see claim `cardio:claim-fourier-evolocumab-cardiovascular-events` and its context] - Evaluated for this: Ezetimibe (`cardio:ezetimibe`) [a claim, not a settled fact; see claim `cardio:claim-improve-it-ezetimibe-added-to-statin` and its context] - Evaluated for this: Cardiac rehabilitation (`cardio:cardiac-rehabilitation`) [a claim, not a settled fact; see claim `cardio:claim-cochrane-cr-mi-cabg-short-term` and its context] - Evaluated for this: Percutaneous coronary intervention (stents) (`cardio:pci`) [a claim, not a settled fact; see claim `cardio:claim-ischemia-initial-invasive-strategy` and its context] - Risk raised by: High LDL cholesterol (`cardio:high-ldl-cholesterol`) [a claim, not a settled fact; see claim `cardio:claim-high-ldl-raises-cad-risk` and its context] - Investigated in: ISCHEMIA (initial invasive or conservative strategy for stable coronary disease) (`cardio:ischemia-trial`) ## Provenance Content hash: 71e69e880f6f2a551628da324702c9cbd0526544f202d83f3d3ee7cffdbc0e67 Last substantive edit: 2026-10-14 Evidence last checked: 2026-10-14