Severe atherosclerosis, these are the things you need to know

Atherosclerosis is a serious disease with a high mortality rate that develops in childhood. Severe atherosclerosis is likely to be caused by organ lesions, such as some ischemic lesions, and this situation must be treated promptly.

1. When atherosclerosis develops to a certain extent, especially when organ lesions occur, diagnosis is not difficult. If abnormal blood lipids are found during examination and arterial angiography shows stenotic lesions in the blood vessels, atherosclerosis should be considered first. It should be noted that atherosclerosis is a systemic disease. The occurrence of atherosclerotic lesions in the blood vessels of one organ means that the same lesions may also exist in the blood vessels in other places; similarly, the occurrence of a vascular event in one organ means the risk of vascular events in other places increases.

2. Atherosclerosis begins in childhood and continues to progress, usually with symptoms appearing in middle age or older age. Because atherosclerotic plaques are characterized by the accumulation of lipids and necrotic tissue, atherosclerosis is often considered a degenerative disease. Modern cell and molecular biological techniques have shown that atherosclerotic lesions are characterized by macrophage migration, smooth muscle cell proliferation, formation of a large number of connective tissue matrices such as collagen fibers, elastic fibers and proteoglycans, and accumulation of intracellular and extracellular lipids.

3.AS mainly affects large and medium arteries. The basic lesions are lipid deposition in the arterial intima, focal fibrosis of the intima, and formation of atherosclerotic plaques, which lead to hardening of the vessel wall, narrowing of the lumen, and a series of secondary lesions, especially in organs such as the heart, brain, and kidneys, which can cause ischemic changes.