MINI-SYMPOSIUM Childhood origins of endothelial dysfunction

therosclerosis is a chronic vascular inflammatory disease, characterised by lipid accumulation, and cellular infiltration and proliferation in the arterial wall. Vascular endothelial dysfunction plays a critical role in the initiation and progression of the atherosclerotic process; the development of techniques that allow detection of endothelial function and early structural vascular disease has allowed major advances in understanding the pathophy-siology at all stages of the disease process. Clinical investiga-tion of endothelial function in children and young adults is informative. Postmortem studies demonstrating the presence of atherosclerotic lesions from as early as the first decade of life have shown that disease burden is directly associated with the extent of exposure to conventional risk factors, even at this early stage.1 Longitudinal studies have also demon