Arterial disease
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Arterial disease
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Arterial disease
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Arterial disease
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| Laboratory value | Result |
| Serum | |
| Creatinine | 1.9 mg/dL |
| Blood urea nitrogen | 50 mg/dL |
| Urine | |
| Erythrocytes | 8/hpf |
| Leukocytes | 2/hpf |
| Protein | 3+ |
| Sediment | None |
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Abdominal aorta p. 372
atherosclerosis in p. 308, 728
Aneurysms p. 533
atherosclerosis p. 308
Angina
atherosclerosis p. 308
Atherosclerosis p. 308
abdominal aortic aneurysms and p. 308
aortic aneurysms p. 728
diabetes mellitus and p. 352
familial dyslipidemias p. 92
homocystinuria as cause p. 83
sites of p. 728
stable angina with p. 310
transplant rejection p. 117
Carotid artery
atherosclerosis in p. 308, 728
Cholesterol
atherosclerosis p. 308
Claudication
atherosclerosis p. 308
Coronary arteries
atherosclerosis in p. 308
Coronary artery
atherosclerosis in p. 728
Diabetes mellitus p. 352-360
atherosclerosis and p. 308
Emboli
atherosclerosis p. 308
Fibrous plaque in atherosclerosis p. 308
Foam cells
in atherosclerosis p. 308
Hyperlipidemia p. 307
atherosclerosis and p. 308
Hypertension p. 306
atherosclerosis and p. 308
Infarcts
atherosclerosis p. 308
Inflammation
in atherosclerosis p. 308
Ischemia p. 208, 691
atherosclerosis p. 308
Popliteal artery p. 463
atherosclerosis in p. 308, 728
Smoking
atherosclerosis and p. 308
Smooth muscle (vascular)
atherosclerosis and p. 308
Thrombi
atherosclerosis p. 308
Transcript
Content Reviewers
Contributors
So these three words look the same: Arteriosclerosis, Atherosclerosis, and Arteriolosclerosis.
Arteriosclerosis is a general umbrella term describing diseases where the wall of the artery becomes thicker, harder, and less elastic than normal.
You can figure that out right from the name: “arterio” which is Greek for artery, and sclerosis which is Greek for “hardening”.
Now the word arteriolosclerosis is any sort of hardening of small arteries in arterioles.
This is also pretty easy to remember since the “olo” in the middle of the word indicates small arterioles.
And then finally, atherosclerosis is the hardening of any artery (even though it’s usually medium- to large-sized arteries) which is caused by the buildup of plaque.
These plaques are called atheromatous plaques and happen in the innermost wall of the blood vessel called the tunica intima or endothelium. Okay now that we’ve differentiated been all three of those words, let’s first take a look at atherosclerosis.
So the blood vessel endothelium is made up of a single layer of cells and does two jobs: First,it protects the rest of the blood vessel wall from the blood, like a coat of varnish on your wood furniture and then, secondly, it secretes proteins on its surface to prevent the blood from clotting, because blood just inherently likes to clot whenever it gets the chance.
Now, Your endothelium can become damaged in lots of different ways. Low density lipoproteins, chemicals from smoking cigarettes, and high blood pressure all wreak havoc on the endothelium because these irritants break down the endothelium.
The damaged endothelium allow low-density lipoproteins to enter the endothelial wall.
The white blood cells called monocyte follow the low-density lipoproteins and break them down through oxidation.
Okay, so you might think macrophages eating the embedded low-density lipoproteins is a good thing, but if there is a lot of low-density lipoprotein, then the macrophage will eat so much cholesterol that it can die. It basically eats itself to death.
Sources
- "The pathogenesis of atherosclerosis: a perspective for the 1990s" Nature (1993)
- "Atherosclerosis — An Inflammatory Disease" New England Journal of Medicine (1999)
- "Robbins Basic Pathology" Elsevier (2017)
- "Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, Twentieth Edition (Vol.1 & Vol.2)" McGraw-Hill Education / Medical (2018)
- "What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Atherosclerosis? - NHLBI, NIH" NHLBI, NIH (22 June 2016)
- "Atherosclerosis" Harvard Health Publications Harvard Health Publications (2011)
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