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Coronary artery disease is the most common cause of heart failure. You get this disease when the arteries that carry blood to your heart get clogged with fatty deposits. Doctors call this atherosclerosis.

The arteries that get clogged aren't the big ones that carry blood away from your heart and around your body. They are the smaller blood vessels on the surface of your heart that deliver oxygen and food to the heart muscle itself.

If your coronary arteries are narrowed by fatty deposits, they won't be able to take enough blood to your heart. If your heart doesn't get enough blood, it can get damaged, and this can lead to chest pain. Doctors call this chest pain angina. Over time, if you keep having this kind of chest pain and heart damage, your heart can't work as well as it should. If you have bad coronary artery disease, you could have a heart attack.

A heart attack happens when at least one of your coronary arteries gets blocked and too little blood reaches your heart. Your heart doesn't get the oxygen and food it needs, and parts of your heart muscle start to die.

A heart attack is painful. It often causes a tight, crushing pain in the center of your chest. It can also leave a scar on your heart muscle. If enough of your heart is scarred, it can't pump as well as it should. This is why you get heart failure.

A large study of people with heart disease found that almost 1 in 5 people who had a heart attack developed heart failure within five years to six years.¹

We don't know exactly why fatty deposits build up in some people's arteries. But we do know that some things make it more likely you'll have coronary artery disease and a heart attack. Doctors call these things risk factors. The more risk factors you have, the more likely you are to have a heart attack.

There are some risk factors you can't do anything about. But by stopping smoking and doing more exercise you can reduce your chances of getting coronary artery disease. Ask your doctor for help.

Risk factors include:²

• Smoking
• Having diabetes
• Having high cholesterol
• Being overweight
• Not getting enough exercise
• Drinking too much alcohol.

To read more, see More about risk factors for coronary artery disease.

This information is for educational use only, and is not a substitute for prompt professional medical advice. Readers should always consult a physician or other professional for advice and treatment. ©BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2008. All rights reserved.