In epidemiologic and clinical studies the close relationship between the stiffening of vascular wall in large arteries and atherosclerosis and its risk factors including hypertension, age, diabetes, gender, obesity, dyslipidemia and other was revealed. The main purpose of this review is to show the importance of alteration elastics properties of artery for atherogenesis. Furthermore, this review shows the structure of vascular wall and functional properties of large arteries as well as summarizes the methods and indices used to estimate arterial stiffness.
