The best of angiology in 2000

There were no great innovations in angiology in the year 2000 but there was a number of advances, one of which being the publication of an international consensus on peripheral occlusive arterial disease, the TASC consensus. Each year, the number of risk factors for venous thromboembolic disease increases, and 2000 was no exception with the demonstration that high factor IX and XI concentrations were associated with this condition. On the arterial side, oral anticoagulation and aspirin were shown to be equivalent in the prevention of occlusion of lower limb bypass grafts. Finally, some recent data is in favour of a systemic mechanism in the acute complications of atherosclerosis.