According to contemporary scientists, the length of a single row of blood vessels in a person’s body, including capillaries, can be 4 weeks around the equator. Among these intricate and dense blood vessels in the human body, arteries, which carry blood from the heart to all parts of the body, are undoubtedly the most important component that sustains everyone’s life like a water pipeline. Like other tissues and organs in the human body, arteries can also get diseases, the most familiar of which is atherosclerosis, i.e., the thickening and hardening of arterial walls, loss of elasticity and qualitative changes. This change eventually leads to two evils: one is the narrowing and occlusion of the arterial lumen, i.e. arterial “stenosis”, and the other is the weak expansion of the artery, i.e. arterial “aneurysm”. For people in general, the narrowing and occlusion of arteries is well understood, there are dirty deposits on the walls of the blood vessels, the blood vessels will become narrower and narrower, and the final result is the “infarction” of the blood vessels, “blockage”, resulting in serious ischemia or even necrosis of the organs or tissues supplied by the arteries. necrosis. This understanding is good, but not comprehensive enough, using the analogy of a river is very graphic, river bed siltation will lead to narrowing of the river, the flow of water will be reduced, but the river bank will break down will cause flooding. In the same way, atherosclerosis usually causes two kinds of morphological changes, one is the usual perception of hardening of the arterial wall, plaque formation, lumen narrowing or even occlusion; the other change is the destruction of the inner wall of the arterial vessels and the hardening and stiffening of the lumen, which under the continuous impact of high pressure arterial blood flow undergoes dilatation changes, which we call “aneurysm The other change is a dilatational change in the arterial vessel wall due to the continuous impact of high pressure arterial blood flow, which we call “aneurysm”. This “infarct” and “aneurysm” are both common clinically, but the risks are different. The danger of atherosclerotic stenosis and occlusion may be familiar to everyone: carotid stenosis and occlusion can cause insufficient blood supply to the brain, with common symptoms such as headache, dizziness, memory loss, insomnia, dreaming, and even transient syncope, and in severe cases, cerebral infarction, loss of consciousness, hemiparesis, aphasia and other stroke manifestations, or even life-threatening, and later cerebral atrophy can appear psychopathy, dementia, etc. These These are commonly known as “cerebral infarction”. Stenosis of the subclavian artery can produce “pulselessness”, which can be called “hand infarction”. Coronary artery stenosis and occlusion can lead to insufficient blood supply to the heart muscle, resulting in palpitations, panic attacks, chest pain, chest tightness, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, and sudden death, which is called “heart attack” and is now called “coronary syndrome”. Renal arteriosclerosis stenosis occlusion can cause unstable hypertension, mild proteinuria, later nocturia, urinary specific gravity and urinary osmolality decrease, resulting in renal insufficiency, which can be called “renal infarction”, which constitutes the main cause of chronic kidney disease. When the mesenteric arteriosclerosis stenosis is occluded, it can cause indigestion, constipation, abdominal pain and even intestinal necrosis, which is called “intestinal infarction”. Lower limb arteriosclerosis and occlusion can cause coldness, numbness and intermittent claudication, which means that the lower limbs feel sore and weak after walking for a while, relieved after resting, and the pain is aggravated at night, and in serious cases, gangrene can form and require amputation, which is called “leg infarction”. These lesions, in a word, are narrowed or blocked arteries, and the distal tissues and organs become hypoxic, necrotic, and lose their normal functions, resulting in a series of symptoms characterized by “infarction”. In contrast, little is known about the dangers of “aneurysms” caused by atherosclerosis and vasodilatation. An aneurysm is neither a benign nor a malignant tumor, but rather a localized expansion of the artery wall that is damaged by the impact of blood flow. There are three main hazards of aneurysm: 1. The enlarged aneurysm compresses the surrounding important organs and tissues and affects their physiological functions. 2. Blood flow forms vortex in the dilated aneurysm, which easily washes away the dirty things on the dilated vessel wall and blocks the distal small vessels after shedding, causing distal blood supply obstruction, just like a sudden water or electricity cut in daily life. 3. Under the continuous impact of blood flow, the aneurysm is gradually increasing in size, and when the maximum tolerance limit is exceeded, the aneurysm will suddenly rupture causing sudden death. Aneurysms are likened to an “untimely bomb” buried in the human body. Aneurysms can be divided into aortic coarctation aneurysms, true aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms according to the nature of the lesion. Among them, aortic coarctation aneurysm is the most dangerous. Aortic coarctation aneurysm is not a tumor growing on the aorta, but a tumor formed when the aortic wall is damaged by some pathological factors and the high speed and high pressure aortic blood flow tears its inner membrane, causing the inner and outer membranes of the aorta to separate, forming a sandwich-like interlayer and causing the outer membrane of the thoracic aorta near the rupture to expand. The danger is that the outer membrane of the wall of the thoracic aorta, where aneurysmal expansion occurs, may rupture at any time leading to rapid hemorrhage and death of the patient. Common causes of thoracic aortic coarctation aneurysms include atherosclerosis, hypertension, medically induced injury, inflammation, and arterial mesenteric dysplasia. Among them, clogged aneurysms due to atherosclerosis are commonly seen in male patients aged 50-60 years old, often with a history of hypertension for many years. In case of rupture and hemorrhage, it is difficult to rescue and the mortality rate is extremely high, which is compared to the “untimely bomb” of human body. In addition to clotted aneurysms, true aneurysms, represented by abdominal aortic aneurysms, are also very dangerous. The abdominal aorta is the continuation of the aorta in the abdomen and is the largest artery in the body, mainly responsible for the blood supply to the abdominal viscera and abdominal wall. When a segment of the abdominal aorta undergoes a limited dilatation, so that the diameter of this segment exceeds more than 1.5 times the diameter of the normal abdominal aorta, it is medically called an abdominal aortic aneurysm. When the abdominal aorta is damaged by sclerosis and slowly takes on a spherical shape under the impact of high pressure blood flow, this swollen ball gives the impression that it is an aneurysm in shape, and therefore is prone to some misunderstandings. When the abdominal aortic aneurysm is large, it compresses and erodes the lumbar spine. As a result, the nerve roots in the lumbar spine are naturally compressed, so the patient will have symptoms of back pain. There is no difference between benign and malignant abdominal aortic aneurysm, but its horror lies in the fact that once the aneurysm ruptures, it will definitely cause massive bleeding, resulting in patients dying from hemorrhagic shock. If we compare “clogged aneurysm” to a “wild terrorist”, then “abdominal aortic aneurysm” is a “hidden saboteur “It often develops at a certain stage. It often develops to a certain stage, suddenly “explodes” when one is not prepared, and quickly kills the person. The mortality rate is especially high in elderly patients with other diseases who suffer acute bleeding after rupture. The famous physicist Albert Einstein died from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. In addition to aneurysms of the aorta, aneurysms can also form in the arteries of the viscera and the extremities, including the arteries of the neck. There are many branches of the visceral arteries, each of which can form aneurysms. Some of the more common ones are abdominal trunk aneurysm, common hepatic aneurysm, splenic aneurysm, superior mesenteric aneurysm, renal aneurysm, etc. The main clinical manifestations of visceral aneurysms include the following: firstly, sudden onset of abdominal pain and shock; secondly, some patients with aneurysms have pulsating masses in the abdomen; again, aneurysms compress surrounding tissues to produce compression symptoms, such as intestinal obstruction and biliary obstruction; finally, aneurysms can lead to dysfunction of internal organs, such as dyspepsia caused by mesenteric aneurysms, renal colic caused by renal aneurysms, Kidney function abnormalities, renal hypertension, etc. Of course, don’t forget the biggest danger of aneurysm – rupture and hemorrhage, which is the killer of aneurysm. In addition to rupture and bleeding, aneurysms in the neck often cause painful masses in the neck, and the enlarged aneurysm compresses the surrounding tissues, resulting in a series of symptoms: compression of the nerves may cause hoarseness, numbness, weakness and pain in the ipsilateral upper limbs; compression of the trachea may cause difficulty in breathing; compression of the esophagus may cause difficulty in swallowing. Aneurysms of the extremities mainly have the following hazards: first, rupture and bleeding; second, ischemic necrosis of the distal tissues of the artery; third, obstruction of blood return due to compression of veins; fourth, sensory-motor disorders due to compression of nerves. These include subclavian aneurysm, axillary aneurysm, brachial aneurysm, iliac aneurysm, femoral aneurysm, N aneurysm, etc. There are many types, so I will not elaborate on them all here. After talking about true aneurysms and entrapment aneurysms, we must also mention pseudoaneurysms. Simply put, a pseudoaneurysm is a blood-filled pseudocavity formed by the surrounding tissue after an artery rupture, and its danger is basically the same as that of a true aneurysm. In the past, the incidence of pseudoaneurysm was very low, but with the increase in the number of car accidents and drug addiction, the number of arterial injuries is increasing, and the incidence of pseudoaneurysm is increasing year by year. We have briefly discussed the lesions and symptoms of arterial diseases, but it can be said that arterial “infarcts” and arterial “aneurysms” are more frightening than any kind of tumor or chronic disease. The reason for this is that arteries exist everywhere in our body and there is a possibility of forming arterial “infarcts” or “aneurysms”, and arterial disease itself is a lifelong disease from young age to old age. However, as long as we fully understand the dangers, especially the dangers of aneurysmal disease (based on its urgency, sudden death, and insidiousness), we can target, detect, and treat vascular diseases as early as possible.