Atherosclerosis in the Philippines

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Based on the 2003 DOH Philippine Health Statistics, disease of the heart (cardiovascular system) is included in the leading causes of mortality in the Philippines. Cardiovascular (also vascular) diseases are referred to by the general public as heart diseases which are imprecise such that it refers to the different kinds of diseases that may inflict the heart or blood vessels. Vascular diseases may cause (1) weakening of the walls of the blood vessels and this may lead to rupturing, (2) narrowing of the lumina of blood vessels and limiting of oxygen supply to a tissue, or (3) damaging of the endothelial lining and triggering intravascular thrombosis.

The most common and dangerous determinant of vascular disease is arteriosclerosis, literally meaning “hardening of the heart.” It is a general term for disorders whose similar effects to the arterial walls are its thickening and its loss of elasticity. Arteriosclerosis may occur as three types namely, Monckeberg’s medial calcific sclerosis, the calcification of the media of muscular arteries; arteriolosclerosis, the hyaline thickening of small arteries and arterioles; and the most common atherosclerosis, the formation of atheromas—a thickening of the arterial wall that is brought upon by cholesterol laden plaque and the amassing of scar tissue.

Of the three disorders, atherosclerosis (AS) is the most leading cause of death and morbidity in the Western hemisphere. It often targets the aorta and the coronary and cerebral systems, which in turn makes myocardial infracts (heart attack) and cerebral infracts (stroke) as two of its major consequences. AS is a sickness that progresses slowly; it is known to begin in childhood but complications usually appear only in middle-age when arteria...

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