[Functional structures of the aorta as a predilection area of the earliest atherosclerotic changes]

Marked lipid deposits selectively localized in the grooves of so-called aortic functional structures were found in a 5-month-old infant who died of rapidly progressing crescentic glomerulonephritis. A prominent nephrotic syndrome comprising hypercholesterolemia and triglyceridemia was present and led to extensive lipid infiltration of the aortic intima. Development of the intimal lesions was probably enhanced by hypertension found in final phase of the illness. Spontaneously enhanced permeability of the intima in the "grooves" and a special constellation of haemodynamic forces along the functional structures were probably responsible for the peculiarly selective localization of lipid deposits that has so far not been described in the literature.