Qualitative evaluation of coronary atherosclerosis in a large cohort of young and middle-aged Dutch tissue donors implies that coronary thrombo-embolic manifestations are stochastic.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

With the intention to gain support for the hypothesis that incident ischemic complications of atherosclerotic disease involve a stochastic aspect, we performed a histological, qualitative evaluation of the epidemiology of coronary atherosclerotic disease in a cohort of aortic valve donors.

Patients and methods

Donors (n = 695, median age 54, range 11-65 years) were dichotomized into a non-cardiovascular (non-CVD) and a cardiovascular disease death (CVD) group. Consecutive 5 mm proximal left coronary artery segments were Movat stained, and the atherosclerotic burden for each segment was graded (revised AHA-classification).

Results

Non-CVD and CVD groups showed steep increase of atherosclerosis severity beyond the age of 40, resulting in an endemic p

SUBMITTER: Lindeman JH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6258539 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature