ABSTRACT
The success in the prevention and treatment of acute conditions due to infectious diseases, hormone insufficiency disorders, and hypertension has increased the average life expectancy in developed countries during the last 50 years. Based on investigations from animal models, modem pathology and epidemiology studies and biochemical techniques revealed major factors contributing to the development of the early lesions of atherosclerosis. Gelatinous lesions are oval or elongated and translucent, found in all segments of the aorta. Biochemical analysis revealed that all constituents are probably derived from plasma. Portions of the intima with gelatinous lesions contain twice as much albumin and about four times as much fibrinogen and lipoprotein as in the normal intima. Fibrolipid plaques or raised lesions are substantially elevated above the surface of the surrounding noninvolved intima.
