Correlation Of Endothelium-derived And Carotid Atherosclerosis In Patients With Essential Hypertension

In recent years, the studies on the clinical and epidemiological investigations show that in our country the prevalence rate of hypertension is increasing. The whole nation may have 160 million essential hypertensive patients nowadays. The domestic researches indicate that, the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases have became the chief cause of death. Hypertension is the predominant risk factor of these diseases. Its mainly cause atherosclerosis and the induced injuries in heart, brain, kidney and other target organs. At present the "damage theory" modified by Ross is accepted generally and according to this theory, endothelial dysfunction is the initiating step of early atherogenesis. Therefore the pathogenesis researches on endothelial dysfunction are of great significance to prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.Recent studies indicated that endothelial cell is not only a kind of mechanical barrier, but also a kind of multi-functional cell, which had endocrine, paracrine and autocrine function. Ischemia, hyperlipidemia and mechanical injury can cause endothelial dysfunction. Then endothelial dysfunction induce the abnormality of vasomotion and angiotasis, the adhering and aggregating of platelets, thrombosis, and the proliferation of vascular smooth muscular cells (VSMC) in arterial media member. All the above changes will initiate and promote the development of atherosclerosis. A lot of researches show the occurrence and development of hypertension is closely related to endothelial dysfunction and the vasoactive substances of dysfunctional endothelial cells is closely related to the occurrence and development of arteriosclerosis. Researches indicate that as endothelium-derived molecule, thrombomodulin (TM), intercellular...