Now playing: What causes a heart attack?
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What causes a heart attack?
Your heart takes blood from the small coronary arteries that wrap around your heart.
If your heart cant get enough blood to function properly, it gets damaged from a lack of oxygen.
Heart attacks usually occur because a blockage of cholesterol plaque has built up in the coronary arteries, and then ruptured - cutting off the blood flow to the heart muscle.
The build-up of plaque is called Coronary Artery Disease, and it causes more than 90 per cent of heart attacks.
Your heart takes blood from the small coronary arteries that wrap around your heart.
If your heart cant get enough blood to function properly, it gets damaged from a lack of oxygen.
Heart attacks usually occur because a blockage of cholesterol plaque has built up in the coronary arteries, and then ruptured - cutting off the blood flow to the heart muscle.
The build-up of plaque is called Coronary Artery Disease, and it causes more than 90 per cent of heart attacks.
Last modified: 2012-03-06
