Atherosclerotic indices of aortic and coronary arteries in the middle part of Japan (Gifu) (Japanese)

Abstract

The numerous environmental factors favoring atherogenesis include food, age, race and local differences. To elucidate this problem there are 2 approaches, viz. the study of individual environmental factors, and the study of geopathologic aspects. A quantitative method of expressing the degree of atherosclerosis, proposed by Gore and Tejada in 1957, has made it possible to conduct such a geopathologic research by a standardized method. The authors investigated the relation between aortic and coronary atherosclerosis in the central area of Japan (Gifu) with particular reference to the role of age, sex, various diseases, hypertension and cardiac hypertrophy. The results of this research together with some data from the relevant literature are reported. The materials studied consisted of unstained aortas and coronary arteries of 247 autopsy cases deemed suitable for this study. As to atherosclerotic lesions in the Japanese, definite changes were observed even in young persons, but the progression of the condition to an advanced stage, involving ulceration, hemorrhage, necrosis and calcification of the arterial wall, was slow. From the relationship between age and the atherosclerotic index (AI), it was found that the progression of the disease was slower in the Japanese people than in the Caucasian races, the former lagging behind the latter by 2 or 3 decades for the atherosclerosis of the aorta, and by 3 or 4 decades for that of the coronary artery. (31 references.)