Arteriosclerosis: facts and fancy.

Arterial vascular diseases comprise the leading cause of death in the industrialized world. Every physician learns about the pathology of these diseases in medical school. All pathologists evaluate arterial disease in surgical pathology and/or autopsy specimens. All clinicians encounter patients with clinical manifestations of these diseases. With such a common and clinically-important group of entities one would think there would be a general understanding of the "known" information that exists. That is, physicians and scientists should be able to separate what is fact and what is fancy. This review article is intended to generate thought in this regard.