[The inflammatory process of cardiovascular disease: new markers]

For many years the classic model used for explaining the genesis of atheromatosis was that involving classic cardiovascular risk factors, caused either by a harmful life style or by hereditary alterations of the metabolism, principally dislipaemias. Recently we have learnt that, intimate molecular processes, as the inflammatory cytokine and cellular cascades, explain a great part of the vascular damage leading to the ischaemic episodes observed in the clinic. It can even be assessed, in general, the seric inflammation markers, as hypothetical tools for early diagnosis of vascular disease, are located on the physiopathological path between the classic risk factor (arterial hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, obesity, diabetes) and the arterial lesion. This paper describes these inflammatory mechanisms, both from the viewpoint of basic science and from the viewpoint of its clinical role, and it also analyses the epidemiological value that these might have in the study of populations.