A simple check with the stethoscope may inform doctors about your risk of having a heart attack, at least that is what researchers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. asserted.

To be more specific, the buildup of fatty deposits on the wall of the arteries carrying blood to the brain can lead to the formation of a specific noise called carotid bruit. A bruit is indicator of arterial blockage.

Dr. Christopher Pickett and colleagues analyzed 22 studies involving 17,295 patients who were followed up for about four years, on average. They found that people with carotid bruits were twice as likely to suffer heart attacks or to die of cardiovascular disease compared with those without a bruit.

In an editorial accompanying the study in the May 10 issue of The Lancet, Dr. Victor Aboyans, cardiologist at Dupuytren University Hospital in Limoges, France doubted the findings. He said that the presence of a carotid bruit cannot always predict heart attack risk and he based his sayings on the fact that many of the followed patients had cardiovascular disease. Therefore, the presence of a carotid bruit in their case was irrelevant. Also, other participants in the study had symptoms of cardiovascular disease, but no carotid bruit.

However, presence of carotid bruit may prompt doctors to recommend more aggressive measures to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, such as reducing the cholesterol level, Aboyans said.