Cor Vasa 2009, 51(10):708-712 | DOI: 10.33678/cor.2009.173

Changing paradigms of preventive cardiology over the 80 years of existence of the Czech Society of Cardiology (1929-2009). Prospects and potential for prevention of cardiovascular disease in this century

Jaroslav Šimon

Centrum preventivní kardiologie, II. interní klinika, Univerzita Karlova Praha - Lékařská fakulta a Fakultní nemocnice v Plzni, Plzeň, Česká republika

Prevention of atherosclerosis is a challenge for cardiology and preventive medicine in the 21st century. Atherosclerotic vascular disease develops inconspicuously over decades, manifesting itself by acute or chronic symptoms which invariably pose a threat to the patient's life. It was not until the mid-20th century that it grew into epidemic proportions, initially in the most developed nations. This led to a search for new forms of effective prevention and treatment requiring a large body of knowledge of the etiopathogenesis of the disease and ways of its spread. As with other chronic non-infectious diseases, it develops by multifactorial interaction of one's genetic make-up with environmental factors. As a result, it is not a problem of the diseased individual only, but of the whole diseased population. Over years, research priorities have evolved from descriptive, prevalence studies to issues of basic research, testing the causality of risk factors, and efforts to developing methods of effective prevention in clinical and laboratory settings, and at the socio-economic level.
The extremely high incidence of the disease across populations is due to factors of lifestyle and risk factors common to all clinical forms of the disease including coronary heart disease, stroke, atherosclerotic aortic aneurysms and carotid or renal artery stenoses. Modification of these factors demonstrably reduces morbidity and mortality of atherosclerotic vascular disease and associated conditions such as hypertension and type-2 diabetes mellitus.

Keywords: Atherosclerotic vascular disease; Environmental factors of the disease; Clinical and epidemiological aspects

Published: October 1, 2009  Show citation