“[Russert] had no symptoms… His blood pressure was well-controlled, his cholesterol fractions were optimal… An hour before this happened he could have had a stress test and it would have been perfectly normal.
The reason why these events occur is because you have rupture of cholesterol plaque in the wall of the coronary artery, and that causes a sudden coronary thrombosis, which results in a heart attack.”
Newman notes that the attack was not an embolism caused by Russert’s flight from Italy the day before, as some had speculated.
Russert’s wake will be held Tuesday at St. Alban’s School in Washington, according to The Washington Post.
MSNBC has a fine tribute page for Russert, including video of yesterday’s empty-chair salute to Russert on Meet the Press.
(Tip of the hat to Talking Points Memo for the Newman video.)
From the Who2 blog:
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