Fatty streaks
Fatty streak is the term generally given to the earliest stages of atheroma, as viewed at autopsy, looking at the inner surface of arteries, without magnification. They are not visible by current technologies in living humans, even by IVUS, the most advanced imaging technology for seeing artery walls.
Actually they are not fat, but collections of macrophage white blood cells, located under the endothelial inner lining of arteries.
The macrophage collections are usually an off white color in appearance and were thought to look like steaks of fat against the otherwise quite red/pink muscular tissue background forming the wall of arteries.
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