Atherosclerosis is closely related with the coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, and peripheral arterial disease. Recently, It was revealed that a common cause of death in Korea is cardiovascular disease, like a western country. So the early detection of atherosclerosis and prevention of atherosclerosis is very important aspect. There are several methods to evaluate the early atherosclerosis. Among them, flow mediated vasodilation of brachial artery and intima-media thickness of carotid artery are commonly used surrogate marker of early atherosclesrosis. The aim of this article is to review published papers how we can apply these methods to assess the early atherosclerosis.

In medline search, seventy four articles were selected to review the method and clinical application of these two methods. Most of these papers were from peer reviewed journals.

Flow-mediated vasodilation and the measurement of intima-media thickness of carotid artery were very useful and important methods to detect early atherosclerosis. and also to evaluate the clinical efficacy of various kinds of intervention to assess the vascular function and structure.