Cardiovascular diseases are the major cause of mortality and morbidity in the industrialized world, while their incidents are on fast ascendancy in developing countries. 1 According to the World Health Organization, 16.7 million people died worldwide of cardiovascular diseases in 2002, accounting for one-third of all deaths globally. By 2020 heart disease and stroke will become the leading cause of both death and disability in the world with the number of fatalities projected to increase to more than 20 million a year. 2, 3 Approximately 40% of the 2.4 million deaths that occurred in the United States in 2002 were attributed to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases with similar statistics prevailing in the European Union. 4, 5 Nearly 71 million adults in the US have one or more types of cardiovascular disease, resulting in a staggering cost of 403 billion dollars to the US economy. 6

Coronary artery disease (CADa) is the leading cause of cardiovascular death, resulting in over half a million deaths annually in the US alone. 6, 7 The underlying culprit for CAD is atherosclerosis, which often has its insidious onset in early adulthood and remains undetected until symptoms manifest at