Introduction
The pathophysiology of atherosclerosis involves a series of complex events that can be likened to that of a chronic inflammatory process, which results in the development of an atherosclerotic plaque. The first step in the process involves injury to the endothelial cells of the artery that results in endothelial cell dysfunction. The activated endothelial cells attract vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) and leukocytes, which proliferate and accumulate in the walls of the artery (Seidman, Mitchell, & Stone, 2014). These cellular components lead to the formation of a large amount of connective tissue matrix. This is the ultimate end point in ...
