Evangelos Oikonomou*, Gerasimos Siasos, Vasiliki Tsigkou, Evanthia Bletsa, Maria-Evi Panoilia, Iris Niovi Oikonomou, Ilias Simanidis, Marianna Spinou, Angeliki Papastavrou, Georgios Kokosias, Marina Zaromitidou, Panagiota Stampouloglou, Michail Spartalis, Manolis Vavuranakis, Christodoulos Stefanadis, Athanasios G. Papavassiliou and Dimitris Tousoulis Pages 1052 - 1080 ( 29 )
Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The most common pathophysiologic substrate is atherosclerosis which is an inflammatory procedure that starts at childhood and develops throughout life. Endothelial dysfunction is associated with the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis and is characterized by the impaired production of nitric oxide. In general, endothelial dysfunction is linked to poor cardiovascular prognosis and different methods, both invasive and non-invasive, have been developed for its evaluation. Ultrasound evaluation of flow mediated dilatation of the branchial artery is the most commonly used method to assessed endothelial function while intracoronary administration of vasoactive agents may be also be used to test directly endothelial properties of the coronary vasculature. Endothelial dysfunction has also been the subject of therapeutic interventions. This review article summarizes the knowledge about evaluation of endothelial function in acute coronary syndromes and stable coronary artery disease and demonstrates the current therapeutic approaches against endothelial dysfunction.
Endothelium, endothelial function, FMD, acetylcholine, CAD, treatment.
Department of Cardiology, ‘Hippokration’ General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens, Department of Cardiology, ‘Hippokration’ General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens, Department of Cardiology, ‘Hippokration’ General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens, Department of Cardiology, ‘Hippokration’ General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens, Department of Cardiology, ‘Hippokration’ General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens, Department of Cardiology, ‘Hippokration’ General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens, Department of Cardiology, ‘Hippokration’ General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens, Department of Cardiology, ‘Hippokration’ General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens, Department of Cardiology, ‘Hippokration’ General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens, Department of Cardiology, ‘Hippokration’ General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens, Department of Cardiology, ‘Hippokration’ General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens, Department of Cardiology, ‘Hippokration’ General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens, Department of Cardiology, ‘Hippokration’ General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens, Department of Cardiology, ‘Hippokration’ General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens, MYSM School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT, Department of Biological Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens, Department of Cardiology, ‘Hippokration’ General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens