[Prevention and therapy of atherosclerosis]

Atherosclerosis is a complex progressive process with high morbidity and frequent dramatic mortality. The experience from the developed countries justifies the effectiveness of atherosclerosis prevention. The combination of nonpharmacologic, antiaggregatory and antihyperlipemic prevention reaches currently the effectiveness of surgical intervention, with the exception of sudden events. On the other hand the surgical intervention does not restore the process of atherosclerosis and requires the same secondary prevention if the long term prognosis is to be improved. The review presents the guidelines on nonpharmacologic, antihyperlipemic (up to the combination of statin with fibrates) and the antiaggregatory prevention with the initial dose of ASA being 200 mg and a long term dose being > or = 30 mg of ASA/d treatment. (Tab. 4, Fig. 3, Ref. 25.)