Atherosclerosis
hideAtherosclerosis is the condition in which an artery wall thickens as the result of a build-up of fatty materials such as cholesterol. It is a syndrome affecting arterial blood vessels, a chronic inflammatory response in the walls of arteries, in large part due to the accumulation of macrophage white blood cells and promoted by low density (especially small particle) lipoproteins (plasma proteins that carry cholesterol and triglycerides) without adequate removal of fats and cholesterol from the macrophages by functional high density lipoproteins (HDL), (see apoA-1 Milano). It is commonly referred to as a hardening or furring of the arteries. It is caused by the formation of multiple plaques within the arteries.
The atheromatous plaque is divided into three distinct components:
The following terms are similar, yet distinct, in both spelling and meaning, and can be easily confused: arteriosclerosis, arteriolosclerosis, and atherosclerosis. Arteriosclerosis is a general term describing any hardening (and loss of elasticity) of medium or large arteries (from the Greek Arterio, meaning artery, and sclerosis, meaning hardening); arteriolosclerosis is any hardening (and loss of elasticity) of arterioles (small arteries); atherosclerosis is a hardening of an artery specifically due to an atheromatous plaque. Therefore, atherosclerosis is a form of arteriosclerosis.
Atherosclerosis, though typically asymptomatic for decades, eventually produces two main problems: First, the atheromatous plaques, though long compensated for by artery enlargement (see IMT), eventually lead to plaque ruptures and clots inside the artery lumen over the ruptures. The clots heal and usually shrink but leave behind stenosis (narrowing) of the artery (both locally and in smaller downstream branches), or worse, complete closure, and, therefore, an insufficient blood supply to the tissues and organ it feeds. Second, if the compensating artery enlargement process is excessive, then a net aneurysm results.
These complications of advanced atherosclerosis are chronic, slowly progressive and cumulative. Most commonly, soft plaque suddenly ruptures (see vulnerable plaque), causing the formation of a thrombus that will rapidly slow or stop blood flow, leading to death of the tissues fed by the artery in approximately 5 minutes. This catastrophic event is called an infarction. One of the most common recognized scenarios is called coronary thrombosis of a coronary artery, causing myocardial infarction (a heart attack). Even worse is the same process in an artery to the brain, commonly called stroke. Another common scenario in very advanced disease is claudication from insufficient blood supply to the legs, typically due to a combination of both stenosis and aneurysmal segments narrowed with clots. Since atherosclerosis is a body-wide process, similar events occur also in the arteries to the brain, intestines, kidneys, legs, etc.
Yet, many infarctions involve only very small amounts of tissue and are termed clinically silent, because the person having the infarction does not notice the problem, does not seek medical help or when they do, physicians do not recognize what has happened.
For more information about Atherosclerosis, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with atherosclerosis
Spun-sugar fibers spawn sweet technique for nerve repair
Feb 26, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (7) |
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Researchers at Purdue University have developed a technique using spun-sugar filaments to create a scaffold of tiny synthetic tubes that might serve as conduits to regenerate nerves severed in accidents or ...
Aspirin and atherosclerosis
Sep 22, 2008 |
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Aspirin has become one of the most widely used medications in the world, owing to its ability to reduce pain, fevers, inflammation, and blood clotting. In animal studies, aspirin has also been shown to prevent atherosclerosis, ...
Medication does not appear to reduce progression of atherosclerosis
Medicine & Health / Medications
Mar 17, 2009 |
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Compared to placebo, the drug pactimibe did not effect certain measures of atherosclerosis for patients with familial hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol levels), but these patients did have an increased incidence of cardiovascular ...
New discovery may lead to immunization against cardiovascular disease
Jul 31, 2008 |
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Low levels of naturally occurring antibodies may represent an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, particularly stroke in men. This discovery, published in the academic journal Atherosclerosis, has now le ...
Study establishes major new treatment target in diseased arteries
May 10, 2009 |
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Removing a single protein prevents early damage in blood vessels from triggering a later-stage, frequently lethal complication of atherosclerosis, according to research published online today in the journal Nature Medicine. By eli ...
Prostaglandin receptor key to atherosclerosis development
Dec 15, 2008 |
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Atherosclerosis – a disease that includes the buildup of fatty, cholesterol-laden lumps of cells inside the artery wall – is the underlying cause of heart attacks and strokes.
Friend or foe? How the body's clot-busting system speeds up atherosclerosis
Oct 30, 2008 |
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Sometimes it's hard to tell friends from foes, biologically speaking. Naturally produced in the body, urokinase plasminogen activator and plasminogen interact to break up blood clots and recruit clean-up cells to clear away ...
Study shows heavy snoring is an independent risk factor for carotid atherosclerosis
Sep 01, 2008 |
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A study in the Sept. 1 issue of the journal Sleep shows that objectively measured heavy snoring is an independent risk factor for early carotid atherosclerosis, which may progress to be associated with stroke.
Is rapid transition through menopause linked to earlier onset of heart disease?
Jan 27, 2009 |
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An evaluation of 203 women as part of the multifaceted Los Angeles Atherosclerosis Study (LAAS) found that those who transitioned more quickly through menopause were at increased risk for a higher rate of progression of "preclinical ...
Researchers test nanoparticle to treat cardiovascular disease in mice
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Jun 04, 2009 |
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Scientists and engineers at UC Santa Barbara and other researchers have developed a nanoparticle that can attack plaque -- a major cause of cardiovascular disease. The new development is described in a recent ...
Stiffening arteries could change cell behavior
Feb 26, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Like skin that loses elasticity, blood vessels lose their pliability and stiffen with age. In more than half of the U.S. population over 65, this stiffening of the blood vessels is accompanied ...
High-fat diets inflame fat tissue around blood vessels, contribute to heart disease
Feb 18, 2009 |
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A study by researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) shows that high-fat diets, even if consumed for a short amount of time, can inflame fat tissue surrounding blood vessels, possibly contributing to cardiovascular ...
A sticky business -- how cancer cells become more 'gloopy' as they die
Mar 15, 2009 |
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The viscosity, or 'gloopiness', of different parts of cancer cells increases dramatically when they are blasted with light-activated cancer drugs, according to new images that provide fundamental insights into how cancer ...
Heart disease patients with previous blockages more likely to die
Aug 03, 2009 |
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Heart disease patients with previous atherosclerosis (fat deposits in the walls of the arteries) are more likely to die in the hospital and less likely to be treated with recommended therapies, researchers report in Circulation: Jo ...
Inflammation worsens danger due to atherosclerosis
Jan 22, 2009 |
3 / 5 (1) |
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Current research suggests that inflammation increases the risk of plaque rupture in atherosclerosis. The related report by Ovchinnikova et al, "T cell activation leads to reduced collagen maturation in atherosclerotic plaques ...
