H.: Autopsy studies in atherosclerosis. I. Distribution and severity of atherosclerosis in patients dying without morphologic evidence of arthersclerotic catastrophe

Gross lesions of atheroselerosis in many arterial sites were graded in 500 consecutive autopsies in a general hospital. The grading system used took into account both the total area of intimal involvement and the severity of individual lesions. The first report analyzes the distribution and severity of atherosclerosis in the 347 men and women of the study group who died without morphologic evidence of atheroselerotic catastrophe in the heart, aorta, or brain. The second report describes the atheroselerotic lesions in patients who died with evidence of atheroselerotic catastrophe. The third report carries out a similar investigation in those subjects who presented evidence of obesity, hyper-tension, nephroselerosis, and rheumatic heart disease. THIS study was initiated to determine the distribution and severity of atheroselero-sis in the major arteries of 500 consecutive adults dying in a general hospital. The pres-ent report describes the severity and distri-bution of atherosclerosis in the 347 patients from this group who died without morpho-logic evidence of atheroselerotic catastrophe in the heart, aorta, or brain. The 2 succeeding papers deal with the atheroselerosis found in patients in the study group who died with evidence of atherosclerotic catastrophe, ' and the distribution of atherosclerosis in patients with obesity, hypertension, nephroselerosis, and rheumatic heart disease. METHODS AND PROCEDURES The 3 hospitals from which the patients came are combined in 1 physical plant with common lab-oratory facilities. No obstetric patients are ad-mitted to these hospitals and no pediatric patients came to autopsy. During the period of this stud