Alterations in Collagen in the Arteries of Thromboangiitic Patients

In previous work on the fine structure of the lumbar sympathetic ganglia in thromboangiitic patients we demonstrated that the first and most important pathologic change is seen in the collagen fibrils. These undergo swelling and fragmentation and eventually dissolve into a homogeneous substance. 1, 2 The observation of this change in collagen, an element that does not specifically belong to the structure of the sympathetic ganglia but can be found through the whole organism, has induced us to put forward the hypothesis that the collagen might be altered in other organs, particularly those pathologically affected. We therefore turned our attention to arterial connective tis-