Signs Your Arteries May Be Narrowed or Blocked

Blocked arteries can go unnoticed for years and cause no clear symptoms at first. When warning signs do appear, they usually point to reduced oxygen reaching the heart or another part of the body.

Well-known symptoms include chest pressure and unusual shortness of breath, but the exact signs depend on which artery is affected. Narrowing in the legs may lead to pain while walking, while problems in other arteries can show up in different ways.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute says coronary heart disease may stay hidden until a heart attack or another complication develops. That is why recognizing symptoms can help, but feeling fine does not necessarily mean the arteries are healthy.

Arteries transport blood away from the heart. In atherosclerosis, fatty plaque builds up in the artery walls and slowly reduces the space available for blood to flow through.

Plaque is made up of cholesterol and other substances. Over time, it can narrow blood flow, and if it ruptures, a clot may form and suddenly obstruct the vessel.

When the heart muscle does not get enough oxygen, angina can occur. It may feel like pressure, squeezing, tightness, or chest discomfort that sometimes spreads to the arm, jaw, back, or neck.

Angina often appears during physical exertion because the heart requires more oxygen when working harder. Even so, symptoms can differ from person to person, and any new or changing pattern should not be written off as normal aging or indigestion.

Another possible warning sign is breathlessness. A person may realize that an activity they once handled easily has become harder than expected, although many other conditions, including lung disease and anemia, can cause the same symptom.

Narrowing in the leg arteries is called peripheral artery disease. A common symptom is cramping or aching while walking that eases with rest, showing that the muscles are not receiving enough blood for the level of activity.

These symptoms are only clues, not a diagnosis. Doctors use the symptom pattern, medical history, physical examination and appropriate tests to decide whether narrowed arteries are the cause.

Risk factors matter even when no symptoms are present. Smoking, high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol levels and diabetes can all contribute to artery disease, and more than one may be present at the same time.

Sudden chest pain, severe breathlessness, or signs of stroke need urgent medical attention. Public-health advice says to call emergency services right away if a heart attack is suspected instead of waiting to see whether symptoms go away.

The weakness of any warning-sign list is that it cannot reliably confirm or rule out a blockage. Artery disease may be silent, symptoms can be unusual, and similar complaints may have other causes.

Knowing how symptoms relate to blood flow can make the condition easier to understand. The key point is that artery disease does not always cause dramatic pain, and a person can look perfectly healthy while circulation problems develop inside the body.

Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Knowridge Science Report.