The significance of detection of preclinical atherosclerosis
<p><strong>Background:</strong> Atherosclerosis is a chronic disease, which can go on for many decades with no clinically noticable changes. When clinical symptoms appear, the disease has usually already significantly progressed. There is currently no effective treatment for athero...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Slovenian Medical Association
2006-08-01
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| Series: | Zdravniški Vestnik |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://vestnik.szd.si/index.php/ZdravVest/article/view/2023 |
| Summary: | <p><strong>Background:</strong> Atherosclerosis is a chronic disease, which can go on for many decades with no clinically noticable changes. When clinical symptoms appear, the disease has usually already significantly progressed. There is currently no effective treatment for atherosclerosis. The disease can only be prevented. This is why it is important to detect it in its early stages, when preventive measures are the most effective. Today, with a help of non-invasive investigation methods, mostly ultrasound based, we can detect changes in the structure and function of artery wall, which are typical for the early stages of atherosclerosis or predict the disease course.</p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Such changes are: lower capability of artery expansion during an increased blood flow (endothelial dysfunction), intima-media thickening, artery walls, artery calcination and ankle-brachial index decrease. The research showed that these symptoms of preclinical atherosclerosis are tightly connected to authenticity of the risk factors, their number and duration, and that there is a tight connection between the general cardiovascular danger and the manifestation of preclinical and morphological changes of an artery wall. Preclinical atherosclerotic changes are very important signals of cardiovascular changes and are independent of classical atherosclerotic risk factors. Contrary to the current means of evaluating risks (see tables) that enable us to evaluate statistical values concerning risks for the population based on present risk factors, assessing the preclinical forms of atherosclerosis enables us to recognize those individuals who are at greatest risk, i.e. those where a process of atherosclerosis has already begun and who need immediate elimination of the risk factors. In this way, the finding of a disturbance in the vein wall (endothelial dysfunction) or its structure (intima-media thickening) can help choose the right preventive measure, meaning that in patients, where the general risk is, according to classical risk factors, which were established to be low or medium, suggesting the usage of intensive preventive measures, including the usage of drugs, used for treating current risk factors, even though there is a borderline or a minor increase of their values.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 1318-0347 1581-0224 |