Careful! Microplastics are stalking you.

In a new study, patients with carotid artery plaque in which microplastics and nanoplastics were detected had a higher risk for death or major cardiovascular events than those with plaques where particles were not found.

This is the first study to show plastic particles are present in atheroma plaques, but the most important finding is that this was related to a four times higher risk for cardiovascular events.

The trial involved 304 patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy for asymptomatic carotid artery disease, whose excised plaque specimens were analyzed for the presence of microplastics and nanoplastics, ultimately found in almost 60% of patients.

After a mean follow-up of 34 months, patients in whom microplastics and nanoplastics were detected within the atheroma had a 4.5 times higher risk for the composite endpoint of all cause death, myocardial infarction, or stroke than those in whom these substances were not detected (hazard ratio, 4.53; 95% CI, 2.00-10.27; P < .001).

The study, led by Raffaele Marfella, MD, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Naples, Italy, was published in The New England Journal of Medicine on March 7, 2024.