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Case presentation 1: Mr Gundry is a 42-year-old construction worker who has had type II diabetes mellitus for the past 6 years. He has no other vascular risk factors and is currently asymptomatic. Is this patient at risk of developing endothelial dysfunction? Case presentation 2: Mr Sinha is a 64-year-old man who presents to your office for symptomatic intermittent claudication. Past medical history is unremarkable except for the presence of multiple vascular risk factors (smoking, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and obesity). How do vascular risk factors cause endothelial dysfunction? Is endothelial dysfunction treatable?

A survey of medical history will reveal that major breakthroughs are often a result of simple and at times unexpected observations. Indeed, the era of endothelial biology was brought to the forefront through a simple pharmacological experiment conducted approximately 2 decades ago in Dr Furchgott’s …