Vascular Diseases are Essentially a Matter of Haemorheology and of Haemostaseology

Vascular diseases have, in different segments of the vascular tree, a different morphology. There is an arteriosclerosis but not an obliterating arteriosclerosis of thoracic and of proximal abdominal aorta. The obliterating arteriosclerosis exists in the branches and in the continuation of these vessels up to the small arteries. Changes similar to arteriosclerosis don't exist either in the terminal vascular bed nor in veins. The material and structure of obliterations is differently composed in different segments of vessels. All those differences are essentially caused by the different local conditions of haemorheology and haemostaseology. A very important point is - the aggregation and adhesion of platelets is posi tively correlated with the shear rate, whereas the activation of the plasmatic coagulation and the development of aggregates of erythrocytes is negatively correlated with the shear rate. The consequences of this for the different vascular segments are fully discussed in the lecture.