SEVERITY OF ATHEROSCLEROSIS IN CEREBRAL ARTERIES, CORONARY ARTERIES, AND AORTAS *

Physicians would like to be able to predict the severity of atherosclerosis in one artery by measuring the severity of atherosclerosis in another artery. I t is difficult, however, to measure atherosclerosis in one artery of a living patient; it is even more difficult to measure accurately atherosclerosis in two or more arteries by comparable methods in living patients. We have therefore investigated the correlation of atherosclerosis in various arteries of autopsied persons in whom most of the major arteries affected by atherosclerosis could be directly inspected and graded. The autopsied persons included in this study were from Oslo, Norway, and Guatemala, Central America, locations in which the average severity of atherosclerosis differs great1y.l Pathologists in these two areas submitted sets of arteries to the International Atherosclerosis Project, a cooperative survey of atherosclerosis in autopsied persons from many different populations.2 The results indicate that, on a group basis, severity of atherosclerosis in one artery parallels atherosclerosis in other arteries. However, on an individual case basis, severity of atherosclerosis in one artery does not predict closely severity of atherosclerosis in another artery except for bilateral cerebral arteries.