Optimism in the Control of Atherosclerosis

IF one were to characterize the prevailing view of atherosclerosis, its inevitability would generally be in the Death and Taxes category. Yet, over 120 years ago, Rokitansky1 proposed that this disorder resulted from the formation of an intimal, fibrinous membrane derived mainly from the blood. In the light of advances in the understanding of hemostasis, Duguid,2 nearly a century later, paraphrased Rokitansky with the hypothesis that these arterial lesions were the consequence of thrombotic deposits that provoked a vascular healing response. The thrombogenic concept of atherosclerosis is essentially optimistic in nature, particularly in the present period of rapid progress in . . .