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
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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 ...
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Feb 26, 2009 |
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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 ...
Heart disease found in Egyptian mummies
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Nov 17, 2009 |
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Hardening of the arteries has been detected in Egyptian mummies, some as old as 3,500 years, suggesting that the factors causing heart attack and stroke are not only modern ones; they afflicted ancient people, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Stroke and heart disease trigger revealed in new research
Nov 30, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have identified the trigger that leads to the arteries becoming damaged in the disease atherosclerosis, which causes heart attacks and strokes, in research published today in the ...
Increase in visceral fat during menopause linked with testosterone
Aug 20, 2009 |
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In middle-aged women, visceral fat, more commonly called belly fat, is known to be a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease, but what causes visceral fat to accumulate?
New chemical imaging technique could help in the fight against atherosclerosis, suggests research
Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry
Jul 31, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A new chemical imaging technique could one day help in the fight against atherosclerosis, suggests research published in the August 2009 edition of the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
Scientists identify cholesterol-regulating genes
Jul 07, 2009 |
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Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the University of Heidelberg, Germany, have come a step closer to understanding how cholesterol levels are regulated. In a study published today in the journal ...
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 ...
Inflammation worsens danger due to atherosclerosis
Jan 22, 2009 |
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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 ...
Contraceptive use may be safe, but information gaps remain
Medicine & Health / Medications
Jan 14, 2009 |
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Introduced in the 1960s, oral contraceptives have been used by about 80 percent of women in the United States at some point in their lives. For women without pre-existing risks for heart disease, the early formulations were ...
