My wife had high cholesterol numbers, so her doctor wanted to give her statins. She asked about a scan, he begrudgingly said well, I guess you could do that. Her scan showed 0 plaque.
It was almost certainly the former, and the former is is basically an indicator that the damage is already done.
Soft plaque takes a long time to calcify. But soft plaque is the stuff that ruptures, and will clog up your arteries just as much.
Statins are best used as a preventative measure - once the plaque is there it's difficult to regress it even while soft, and as far as we know effectively impossible once it is calcified.
