Atherosclerosis and myocardial lesions in subjects dying from fresh cerebrovascular disease.

Abstract

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT AGE, SEX, GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, OBESITY, AND ASSOCIATED CAUSE OF DEATH, IT WAS CONCLUDED THAT: (1) the extent of aortic calcification was much lower in cerebral haemorrhage than in cerebral infarct. In deaths due to cerebral haemorrhage aortic calcification was at about the same level as in those due to cancer of the stomach, while in deaths due to cerebral infarct it was at the same level as in those due to coronary heart disease; (2) the prevalence of large myocardial scar was low in deaths due to cerebral haemorrhage (at about the same level as in those due to prostatic cancer), while in deaths due to cerebral infarct it was more frequent (at the same level as in deaths due to diabetes); (3) the extent of coronary calcification and prevalence of coronary stenosis and fresh myocardial infarction were low in the cerebral haemorrhage and cerebral infarct deaths, but a little lower in the former; and (4) the extent of raised lesions of the aorta and coronary arteries was similar in the cerebral haemorrhage and cerebral infarct deaths, the level of aortic lesions being high and overlapping in level with those in the coronary heart disease and hypertensive deaths, and the levels of coronary lesions being much lower and well below those in the coronary and diabetic hypertensive deaths.