Zuzana Malachovská, Miriam Kozárová
Atherosclerosis develops over a decades and progresses silently through a long preclinical stage before appearance of
first clinicall symptoms. Endothelial dysfunction is considered to be intermediate stage in the development of atherosclerosis.
We are currently witnessing the implementation of preventive cardiology procedures, which include the identification
of patients at high cardiovascular risk and personalized approach to their management. Scoring risk systems
(Framingham, SCORE) based on traditional risk factors are not sufficient for such stratification. Current research is focused
on the development of diagnostic methods that enable us to detect an early vascular changes in asymptomatic
individuals. The aim of review article is to introduce some up- to date non-invasive methods of detecting endothelial
dysfunction, describe their basic principles and their prognostic value for clinical outcomes.