What Is Atherothrombosis and How to Prevent Its Manifestation?
Atherosclerosis is a disease that develops over several decades. Risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and diabetes can lead to the development of arterial fatty streaks and fibrous plaques in individuals. Clinical disease may stay clinically silent during several years, by which time atherosclerotic plaques may have developed. Initial symptoms develop in the vascular bed in which the atherosclerotic process is most advanced. However, symptoms in one vascular bed usually indicate widespread disease with a high risk of further is-chemic events elsewhere. Cracking, rupture and fissure of atherosclerotic lesions act as stimuli for platelet activation and resultant thrombosis. This process is called atherothrombosis. Platelets do not adhere to intact endothelium, but require sites of vascular injury such as atherosclerotic plaques. The resultant exposure of thrombogenic subendothelial vessel wall constituents such as collagen, laminin, fibronectin and von Willebrand fa
