What Is Arteriosclerosis?

Arteriosclerosis is a term often confused with atherosclerosis and arteriolosclerosis. However, they are different in meaning and spelling. Arteriosclerosis is a condition in which the large and medium arteries get hardened and lose their elasticity. Arteriosclerosis is a combination of two Latin words, 'arterio', meaning the arteries and 'sclerosis', meaning hardening. It is the result of a thick deposit of tough, rigid collagen around the vessel wall and inside the atheroma, increasing the stiffness and decreasing the elasticity of the artery wall.

Chest pains, which are symptoms of heart attacks, commonly affect the arteries which supply blood to the heart. The arteries which supply blood to the brain are often affected by symptoms of strokes, such as sudden numbness, dizziness or weakness, and those that supply blood to the arms and legs are often plagued by leg pain while walking (instant claudication) and other symptoms of peripheral arterial disease. Arteriosclerosis can be treated by taking cholesterol medications, anti-platelet medications, anticoagulants, blood pressure medications, and other medications, for example, medications for diabetes, etc. It can also be treated by undergoing angioplasty, endarterectomy, thrombolytic therapy and bypass surgery. Gene therapy has also been suggested as an effective way to treat arteriosclerosis.

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Arteriosclerosis can be characterized by an increase in the plaque which leads to the blockage of the artery causing heart attack or stroke if severely manifested. A common condition of arteriosclerosis, known as atherosclerosis, features the above-mentioned scenario. A stroke occurs when an artery in the brain gets blocked due to the hardened mass including lipids, dead cells, fibrous tissue and palates, in a single word 'plaque', and the supply of oxygen gets hampered. On the other, a heart attack occurs when a coronary artery gets blocked by plaque, and the heart muscles lack the supply of oxygen. Another complicated form results when plaques are broken down into clusters and block the both ends of an artery, this eventually leads to oxygen-deprived tissue and finally tissue death. This situation is known as embolism. Research confirms that arteriosclerosis is positively correlated to high blood cholesterol level, lack of exercise and smoking.

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