Abstract
Pathological examinations of the heart and coronary arteries were performed in 418 consecutive autopsy cases at a geriatric hospital. Myocardial infarctions or large myocardial scarrings were observed in 91 cases, while cardiac hypertrophy was present in 161 cases.
Large myocardial lesions were present in 20 of 21 cases with obvious occlusion in any one of the coronary arteries. Among the cases without coronary occlusion, the incidence of large myocardial lesions was high in those with significant coronary stenosis, especially when at least 2 main branches of the arteries were severely stenosed. Although myocardial lesions were more frequent in the cases with severe hypertension than in those with normal blood pressure or moderate hypertension, there was no significant differences in the incidence of large myocardial lesions within the groups with the same severity of coronary stenosis regardless of blood pressure.
Cardiac hypertrophy was frequently observed in the cases with severe hypertension or large myocardial lesions. On the other hand, cardiac hypertrophy was rather infrequent among the cases with severe coronary sclerosis when neither associated with hypertension nor large myocardial lesions. The correlation between the severity of coronary stenosis and cardiac hypertrophy was not obvious when the cases with large myocardial lesions were excluded.
