Background. Endothelial dysfunction is considered to be a disruption in any of endothelial functions, leading to endothelial activation and subsequent development of atherosclerosis. Taking into account growing importance of early cardiac disease diagnostics, endothelial dysfunction can be used as a marker of developing atherosclerosis. The most frequent methods are ultrasound brachial artery dilatation assessment, circulating endotheliocytes count, endothelin-1, von Willebrand factor and TNF-a concentration measurement, proinflammatory (IL-1, IL-2, IL-5, IL-7, IL-12) and antiinflammatory (IL-4, IL-10) interleukins concentration measurement.
Methods and results. Data of 10 healthy adult volunteers and 37 patients with cardiac pathology were analyzed. Sensivity and specificity of endothelium-dependent and -independent vasodilatation and circulating endothelial cells count was determined according to standard procedure.
Conclusion. Analysis of the sensitivity and specificity of the presented methods led to the conclusion that the joint determination of endothelium-dependent and -independent vasodilatation and counting circulating endothelial cells is the most sensitive (88%) and specific (100%) method of assessing presence of endothelial dysfunction.