Atherosclerosis does not always develop in just one part of the body.
If an ultrasound of the carotid arteries — the arteries in the neck that carry blood to the brain — shows atherosclerotic plaque, this means that atherosclerosis is already present in the arterial system.
The next question may be: could plaque also be present in the arteries that supply the heart?
A study published in 2026 looked at this question in 269 people who had no cardiovascular symptoms but were considered to be at higher cardiovascular risk.
The researchers compared findings from carotid ultrasound with detailed CT imaging of the coronary arteries — the arteries that supply blood to the heart.
They found that coronary atherosclerosis was common in this selected group. Almost one-third of participants had coronary plaques with features classified by the researchers as high risk.
The likelihood was particularly high when carotid plaque was present together with a higher amount of calcium in the coronary arteries.
This does not mean that finding carotid plaque automatically means that the heart arteries are affected, or that everyone with carotid atherosclerosis needs a coronary CT scan.
It does mean that atherosclerosis found in the carotid arteries can be an important finding when assessing cardiovascular health as a whole, particularly when other cardiovascular risk factors are also present.
