Footprints of atherosclerotic coronary heart disease in children.

Formerly viewed as a bland lipid storage disease mainly affecting adults, atherosclerosis is nowadays recognized to be a chronic inflammatory disease that begins much earlier, probably already during fetal life. There has inevitably been reorientation from the traditional risk factor cholesterol to a broad category of factors, including those triggering chronic inflammation, such as infections. In addition, major advances in the field of vascular biology have led to a reassessment of our perception and understanding of the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. A key role in this process is now attributed to vascular endothelium.