title: On the etiology of cardiovascular diseases: A new framework for understanding literature results.
abstract: The interpretative framework presented here provides a rationale for many well-known features of cardiovascular diseases. Prolonged acidemia with high blood levels of free fatty acids is proposed to shape the basic context for formation of fatty acid micelles and vesicles with an acidic core that fuse with the endothelia, disrupt vital cell processes, and initiate atherosclerotic plaque formation. It offers an explanation for the distributed localization of atherosclerotic lesions, and how mild cases of occurrence of fatty acids vesicles formed within the heart and the arteries close to the heart may cause such lesions. It provides a rationale for how acute events, namely heart attacks and strokes, may arise from stormy development of fatty acid vesicles within the heart. Additionally, a process is proposed for clot development from the existing fatty acid vesicles.
authors.affiliation: School of Sciences and Technologies, University of Évora, R. Romão Ramalho, 59, 7002-554 Évora, Portugal. Electronic address: ahr@uevora.pt.
authors.forename: António
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heitor Reis
mesh_terms: D002118:Calcium / Q000737:chemistry; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality; D003645:Death, Sudden; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000378:metabolism; D005230:Fatty Acids, Nonesterified / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007249:Inflammation; D007477:Ions; D008823:Micelles; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D058226:Plaque, Atherosclerotic / Q000378:metabolism; D033081:Shear Strength; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D020521:Stroke / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D013923:Thromboembolism / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality
chemical_list: D005227:Fatty Acids; D005230:Fatty Acids, Nonesterified; D007477:Ions; D008823:Micelles; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D002118:Calcium