5. Conclusions

The development of antithrombotic drugs continues to be an active area of research. As there is not a straightforward relationship between therapeutic intervention and improvement of endothelial function, but rather a complicated interrelation between multiple subcellular "targets", research has focused on understanding the underlying mechanisms leading to vWF elevation in the circulation. Development of novel non-invasive diagnostic methods that facilitate early detection of endothelial damage and dysfunction and expand our knowledge of the etiology of cardiovascular disease are aggressively being pursued. In this overview, we present currently available literature concerning the contribution of endothelial cell activation/dysfunction to the increase in the level of plasma vWF in the context of inflammatory cardiovascular disease. While differential diagnosis of infectious and non-infectious organ damage associated with high vWF levels is not possible using vWF as a marker, elevated levels of vWF correlate very well with organ failure and poor survival and thus encourage further pursuit of this line of research toward novel drug therapy.
