[Calcinosis of the cardiac coronary arteries]

In patients who had died due to various diseases and also in practically healthy individuals aged from 10 to 79 years calcinosis of the coronary arteries was studied morphometrically and histologically. The incidence and the extend of calcinosis implicating the coronary arteries increased with growing age and were more pronounced in males than in females. In analysis of observations uncovered, irrespective of the cause responsible for death, a direct relationship between the area of calcinosis and that of atherosclerosis in grosso modo (correlation factor of 0.46) was noted; the diseased in consequence of diverse affections demonstrated considerable variations in the development of arterial calcinosis. More often than not calcinosis of the coronary arteries was definable in atherosclerotic plaques carrying an important fibrotic component, in cases of necrosis and in those marked by a low lipids content and poor vasculalarization of an altered wall of the coronary artery. Calcinosis of the coronary arteries occurred more often than did their stenosis on 50% or more of the lumen. There has been established a direct relation between the frequency of the coronary artery stenosis and the area of calcinosis. The latter usually appears as a sign of disseminated atherosclerosis rather than as that of a progressive atherosclerotic process.