[Inflammation in atherosclerosis].

Traditional risk factors for atherosclerosis are well known and their control decreases importantly the appearance of the disease. These factors are the genetic charge, dyslipidemia, smoking, systemic arterial hypertension, diabetes, obesity, gender, age, stress, estrogen levels in women, and life style. However, in the last decade, new risk factors have been identified especially for coronary and cerebrovascular atherosclerosis. Among these factors, the inflammatory process has been pointed out in which acute stage reactants participate, such as C-reactive protein, leukocyte count, globular sedimentation, multiple cytokines, alpha tumor necrosis factor, vascular and cellular adhesion molecules, some metalloproteinases, pregnancy-associated plasma protein A, lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2, angiotensin II, and very probably infection. This article discusses the mechanism by which these markers participate in the atherosclerotic process and their value as predictors of future coronary events, as well as to what extent current therapeutics can contribute to decrease these events and to improve patient care.