Atherosclerosis is a chronic, inflammatory disease of the arterial wall that underlies many of the common causes of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, including myocardial infarction (MI), and cerebrovascular and peripheral vascular disease. Early pathological descriptions viewed atherosclerosis as an end-stage degenerative process that inevitably resulted in a generalized narrowing of the arterial lumen. However, progress in our understanding of the pathophysiology and the underlying ce...