Coronary and aortic atherosclerosis in relation to body-build factors.

The relationship between body-build factors and the severity of coronary and aortic atherosclerosis was estimated in a series of 193 men, aged 25 years or over, who had died of violent causes. Overweight showed a significant correlation with the extent of coronary and aortic fatty streaks but not with the extent of coronary or aortic raised lesions or calcifications. The stenosis score, which expressed the degree of obstruction in the coronary arterial tree, showed a slight tendency to a positive correlation with the degree of obesity but the finding was not consistent. Nor correlation was found between the sturdiness factor of body-build and the severity of atherosclerosis. The muscularity factor showed a significant correlation with the extent of coronary and aortic fatty streaks and an inverse correlation with aortic calcifcations.