Figure 1.

Simplified nomenclature of biological calcifications. Medial vascular calcifications comprise in humans a number of diseases; in the absence of knowledge of molecular pathogenesis of different types of medial vascular calcifications, the proposed nomenclature is based on the presence or absence of known risk factors. Mönckeberg's media sclerosis represents the most common variety of medial calcifications; it is frequently associated with type II diabetes and chronic kidney disease, yet, in some cases none of these diseases and no other known risk factors for vascular calcifications are present. In the latter case genetic or other as yet not known risk factors are likely.